气馁
qì něi · HSK 7
to be discouraged
🎈 气馁 = 气 air/spirit + 馁 deflated: your spirit lets out its air
气 means air or spirit; 馁 carries the sense of going slack or dispirited (it also meant famished). Put together, your inner air leaks out — the deflated-balloon feeling of being discouraged. něi rhymes with nay, the no you start saying to yourself.
气 — steam/vapor radical 气
Originally a pictograph of rising vapor or clouds drifting in the sky, depicting curling streams of air. The character came to mean breath, air, and by extension vital energy or 'qi.' The simplified form 气 keeps the original outline; the traditional 氣 added 米 (rice) to suggest steam rising from cooking grain.