争分夺秒
zhēng fēn duó miǎo · HSK 7
minutes
⏱️ 争 zhēng fight + 分 fēn minute + 夺 duó snatch + 秒 miǎo second = fight for minutes, snatch seconds
Four characters pair two time units with two grabbing verbs: fight over every 分 minute and seize every 秒 second. The doubled urgency is what makes it mean a flat-out race against time.
争 — hand 爫 (claw) over hand 又 pulling 亅
争 depicts two hands grabbing the same object from above and below, with a vertical stroke representing the contested item between them. The image of two parties tugging at one thing gave rise to its meanings of 'to contend,' 'to fight for,' or 'to dispute.' The modern simplified form streamlines the older 爭.
分 — knife 刀 + eight 八 (split apart)
分 originally depicted a knife (刀) cutting something into two parts, shown by 八 above (which itself meant 'divide'). The core sense is 'to divide' or 'split', from which extended meanings like 'portion', 'minute', and 'part' developed. Pronounced fèn, it carries the sense of an allotted share.
夺 — big 大 + short-tailed bird 隹 + hand 寸
Originally written 奪, showing a hand (寸) seizing a bird (隹) from someone's grasp (大), depicting the act of snatching away. The simplified form 夺 drops the bird component but keeps the meaning of seizing, taking by force, or contending for something.
秒 — grain 禾 + few 少
A semantic-phonetic compound: 禾 (grain) gives the meaning and 少 (few/small) hints at the sound and the idea of something tiny. Originally referred to the fine awn or beard tip of a grain stalk, then extended to mean 'a tiny amount.' In modern Chinese it is borrowed to mean 'second' (the time unit).