提心吊胆
tí xīn diào dǎn · HSK 7
(saying) to be very scared and on edge
😨 提 lift + 心 heart + 吊 hang + 胆 gallbladder = heart raised, gallbladder dangling = on edge
A four-part body idiom: your heart feels lifted up (提) and your gallbladder hangs (吊) loose. In Chinese the gallbladder is the seat of courage, so a dangling one means nerves are shot — you stay tense and frightened, braced for something bad.
提 — hand radical 扌 + 是 (phonetic)
提 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 gives the meaning, since the character originally referred to lifting or carrying something by hand. The right side 是 supplies the sound. From 'lift up' it extended to 'raise (an issue),' 'mention,' and 'bring forward.'
心 — pictograph of a heart with chambers and aorta
心 is a pictograph showing a stylized heart, with strokes representing the organ's chambers and the aorta at the top. Originally meaning the physical heart, it broadened to cover mind, feelings, and intentions, since ancient Chinese thought located thinking and emotion in the heart.
吊 — 口 mouth on top + 巾 cloth below
Originally a pictograph showing a person hanging by a rope, depicting the act of suspending or hanging. Over time it came to mean 'to hang, suspend' and by extension 'to mourn' (since mourners would hang offerings). The modern form 吊 replaced the older 弔, which showed a person wrapped in cords.
胆 — flesh radical 月 (肉) + 旦 dàn (phonetic)
胆 is a phono-semantic compound. The 月 component here is the 'flesh/meat' radical (肉), marking it as a body part — the gallbladder. 旦 (dàn) gives the sound. By extension, since the gallbladder was traditionally linked to courage, 胆 also means 'guts' or 'bravery'.