受不了
shoù bù liǎo · HSK 4
can't stand
🙅 受 receive + 不 not + 了 able = can't take it anymore
受 means to receive or bear, 不 negates it, and 了 marks completion or capability here. Together: literally 'receive-not-able' — you can't endure it. Common reaction to spicy food, heat, or annoying behavior.
受 — hand 爫 (top) + 冖 + hand 又 (bottom)
Originally a pictograph showing two hands passing an object (the middle 冖 represented a boat or tray) between them. It depicted the act of giving and receiving, so the character meant both 'to give' and 'to receive.' Later 授 was created with the hand radical 扌 to mean 'give,' leaving 受 to mean 'receive' or 'accept.'
不 — single pictograph; bird flying upward
Originally a pictograph in oracle bone script, traditionally interpreted as a bird flying up toward the sky and unable to come down, suggesting negation or refusal. Over time it became the standard negation word in Chinese, used before verbs and adjectives to mean 'not'.
了 — pictograph of swaddled child with no arms
了 originally depicted an infant wrapped in swaddling cloth, with the arms hidden or bound — a variant of 子 (child) without the arms. From 'finished wrapping' it extended to mean 'completed' or 'finished,' which is its main modern grammatical use as an aspect particle marking completed action.