Han character 忷

忷 names fear, worry, or an alarmed state of mind.

Rather than a modern invention, it belongs to an older Chinese fear-word tradition. Its written form combines the heart component with 凶, associating it with emotion and alarm. The 2024 entry in Taiwan’s Ministry of Education variant-character dictionary notes that 恟 is not recorded in Shuowen, an early Chinese character dictionary, while later lexicons such as Guangyun and Jiyun preserve related forms. That places this exact graph later in the written record than the older 兇 tradition.

The compounds show different uses: 忷懼 means fearful dread or alarm, while doubled 忷忷 can mean clamour, agitation, or public unrest rather than simply stronger fear. Japanese dictionaries also record 忷 with a reading meaning “to fear”; that is a Japanese use, separate from the Mandarin input spelling.

How do I type 忷?

Enter the Mandarin input spelling, then choose 忷.

On a Mandarin pinyin input method, enter xiong and select 忷 from the candidates; many characters share that input. Cangjie lists PUK for this character on layouts that support it. If 忷 appears as a blank box, the font lacks the glyph. A regional Chinese, Japanese, or Korean font may draw its strokes differently without changing which character it is.