面红耳赤
miàn hóng ěr chì · HSK 7
flushed with anger (or excitement)
😡 面红耳赤 = face + red + ear + red — both face and ears go red
Four characters split into two pairs: 面红 (face red) and 耳赤 (ear red), where 赤 is an old word for red. Both halves flushing together signals strong anger or excitement.
面 — enclosure 囗 + 自 (nose/face inside)
Originally a pictograph showing a face framed by an outline, with 自 (nose) inside representing the central feature of the face. The early meaning was 'face,' which extended to 'surface,' 'side,' and 'aspect.' In simplified Chinese, 面 also absorbed 麵, adding the meaning 'flour/noodles.'
红 — silk radical 糹/纟 + work 工 (phonetic)
红 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The silk radical 糹 (simplified 纟) signals the meaning, since the character originally referred to a kind of pink or light-red dyed silk. The right side 工 supplies the sound. Over time the meaning broadened from the dye color to 'red' in general.