无意
wúyì · HSK 7
have no intention
🤷 无 = without + 意 = intention; literally no-intention, did it by accident
无 means without or none; 意 means intention or idea. Together: without intention. Compare 无意 (unintentional, accidental) with 故意 (gùyì, on purpose) — they are direct opposites built on the same 意 root.
无 — top 一 + 林-like middle + fire radical 灬 below
Originally a pictograph of a person dancing while holding ornaments or tassels, meaning 'to dance' — the ancestor of 舞. It was borrowed phonetically to write the negative 'not have / without,' and the dance meaning was reassigned to 舞 with an added foot element. The simplified form 无 comes from an ancient variant.