What is the rough etymology of 事情? Or how do 事 (matter) and 情 (feelings / emotions) come together to form the meaning of circumstances / conditions?
1 Answer
Even though its core meaning is "heart, feeling", the kanji 情 is so basic in Chinese that has various derived meanings if you try any dictionaries (1, 2).
In a nutshell, it means in this context "how it is felt to you" → "ballpark guess" or "outline of how it is going", so 事情 simply stands for "what is happening".
cf.
- 情報: "how-it-is-going news" = information
- 情勢: "how-it-is-going momentum" = trend, state of affairs
- 政情: "politics how-it-is-going" = political condition (in flux)
answered Aug 17 at 22:56
