天地 Heavan and earth




You must have seen such expressions during the festivals: 欢天喜地过大年/闹元宵。Why not use only 欢喜?What difference is there between 欢喜 and 欢天喜地?

天地 literally means heaven and earth, and is used very often with another two-word phrases such 欢喜, 长久, 昏暗, 惊动, 感谢, etc. to form four-word phrases, also called set phrases, to achieve the effect of emphasis, e.g. 欢喜 with joy  欢天喜地 with extreme joy;长久 for a long time  天长地久 everlasting and unchanging.

Why “闹”元宵?

To learn 闹, it’s better to know the meaning of 市 first. You can see 闹 is composed of 门 door and 市 market. A market is a noisy place, so the original meaning of 闹 was noisy, which is very well expressed by the phrase, 闹市 noisy market.

In Chinese, many adjectives can be turned into verbs which have meanings related to these adjectives, e.g. 闹. The meaning of 闹 is extended from noisy to noisy-related verbs such as make a noise 吵闹, celebrate 闹元宵, suffer from 闹水灾, etc. 

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