细心
xìxīn · HSK 7
careful
🧵 细心 = 细 fine/detailed + 心 heart = a finely-tuned heart, paying close attention
细 is the thin, fine thread (the 纟 silk radical on its left); pair it with 心 heart and you get a mind tuned to fine detail — careful and attentive. xìxīn doubles the -ì-īn ring for an easy echo.
细 — silk radical 糹 + 田 (field)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The silk radical 糹 supplies the meaning, since silk threads are fine and thin, giving 细 its sense of 'thin, fine, slender.' The right side 田 originally wrote 囟 (fontanel) as a phonetic hint, later simplified to 田 in modern script.
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.