形影不离
xíng yǐng bù lí · HSK 7
inseparable (as form and shadow)
👤🌑 形 form + 影 shadow + 不离 not parting = a shadow never leaves what casts it
Four parts: 形 (form/body), 影 (shadow), 不 (not), 离 (leave/part). A shadow stays glued to its body wherever it goes, so the idiom describes two people who go everywhere together and are never apart.
形 — open frame 开 + hair/pattern 彡
形 combines 开 (originally a phonetic element suggesting the sound) with 彡, a radical depicting fine lines, hair, or decorative strokes. The 彡 part conveys the idea of visible markings or surface appearance, giving 形 its core meaning of 'shape' or 'form.' Over time it broadened to cover physical figure, appearance, and abstract form.
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'.
离 — top 亠 + 凶 + 禸 (animal track)
Originally depicted a long-tailed bird caught in a net, from which the early sense 'oriole' arose. The character was later borrowed phonetically for the unrelated verb meaning 'to leave' or 'be apart from,' which became its dominant modern usage. The original bird sense faded out of everyday use.