左顾右盼
zuǒ gù yoù pàn · HSK 7
glancing to left and right
👀 左 left + 顾 look-back + 右 right + 盼 gaze = looking left, glancing right
Four-character idiom built from a left/right pair: 左 (left) and 右 (right) bracket two looking-verbs, 顾 (turn the head to look) and 盼 (to gaze, expect). Together: head swiveling both ways, eyes darting all around.
左 — hand 𠂇 + work 工
Originally a pictograph of the left hand, later combined with 工 ('work') to specify the meaning 'left' and distinguish it from 右 ('right', hand + mouth). The hand component 𠂇 depicts fingers and a wrist, while 工 was added as a semantic clarifier referring to assisting work.
顾 — page 頁 + cliff 厃 (phonetic 雇)
顧 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 頁 (head) gives the meaning of turning the head to look back, while 雇 supplies the sound. The original sense was 'to turn and gaze,' which extended to 'consider, care for, attend to.' The simplified form 顾 keeps the same structure with 页.
右 — hand 𝆑 (又) + mouth 口
Originally a pictograph of the right hand (又). Later 口 'mouth' was added to distinguish the directional meaning 'right' from the older hand sense. The 又 component now appears stylized as the top-left stroke shape, while 口 sits below.
盼 — eye 目 + divide 分 (phonetic)
盼 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 目 (eye) gives the meaning and 分 supplies the sound. It originally described eyes with a clear contrast between black and white, then shifted to mean looking eagerly into the distance, and now commonly means to hope for or long for something.