偷懒
toū lǎn · HSK 7
to be lazy
🦥 偷 steal + 懒 lazy = to steal a bit of laziness, slack off on the sly
偷 (toū) means to steal or do something secretly; 懒 (lǎn) means lazy. Together: stealing moments of laziness when you should be working, i.e. goofing off.
偷 — person radical 亻 + 俞 (yú, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the person radical 亻 signals a human action, while 俞 supplies the sound. Originally 偷 meant 'careless' or 'perfunctory,' and over time it shifted to its modern sense of 'to steal' or 'stealthily.'
懒 — heart radical 忄 + 賴/赖 (rely)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the heart radical 忄 signals an emotion or mental state, while 賴 (lài, 'to rely on') supplies the sound. The original idea was a mind that leans on others and avoids effort, which extended to the modern meaning 'lazy'.