惡

Phono-semantic compound:

心 (heart, mind) – semantic, indicating emotions or moral character.

亞 (second, sub-; burial pit structure in Shang script) – phonetic element.

Early interpretations (influenced by Mencius’ 성선설 / “human nature is good”) suggested that 亞 represented a “second heart” → a corrupt or evil mind.

Modern scholarship explains 亞 as a phonetic component, originally depicting the layout of a Shang-dynasty tomb, without inherent negative meaning.

Semantic range:

- evil, wickedness, vice;

- bad, undesirable, harmful;

- to hate, to detest, to loathe;

- classical: “how, why” (interrogative, interchangeable with 安).

善惡 (선악) – good and evil

惡人 (악인) – evil person, villain

惡習 (악습) – bad habit

罪惡 (죄악) – sin, crime

惡意 (악의) – malice, ill will

喜惡 (희오) – likes and dislikes

Polyphonic:

악 (ak) in adjective: “bad, evil”

오 (o) in verb: “to hate, to detest”

In Korean/Chinese compounds, often pronounced 악; standalone verb/adjective sense tends toward 오.

Opposite in meaning to 好 (to like, to love).

In Classical Chinese texts, 惡 is frequently used in rhetorical questions with the meaning 어찌 (how/why).