发脾气
fā pí qì · HSK 7
to get angry
😤 fā pí qì = release temper air — your spleen vents its qi
发 means emit or release, 脾 is spleen (ancient Chinese medicine linked anger to the spleen), and 气 is air or vital energy. So getting angry is literally releasing spleen-qi — your organ blowing off steam.
发 — simplified form of 發; from 癶 (two feet) + 弓 (bow) + 殳 (weapon)
The traditional form 發 depicted shooting an arrow from a bow, with 癶 showing outstretched feet and 弓 the bow, giving the core sense of 'send out, discharge.' From this came extended meanings like 'issue, emit, develop.' The modern simplified 发 also absorbed 髮 (hair), so it now covers both 'to send out' and 'hair.'
脾 — flesh radical 月 (肉) + 卑 bēi (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 月 (a form of 肉 'flesh/organ') signals a body organ, while 卑 supplies the sound, originally close to 'pí'. It denotes the spleen in traditional Chinese medicine, long viewed as central to digestion and the transformation of food into qi.
气 — steam/vapor radical 气
Originally a pictograph of rising vapor or clouds drifting in the sky, depicting curling streams of air. The character came to mean breath, air, and by extension vital energy or 'qi.' The simplified form 气 keeps the original outline; the traditional 氣 added 米 (rice) to suggest steam rising from cooking grain.