Taxonomy of meanings for 憯:　　

  • 憯 cǎn (OC: skhɯɯmʔ MC: tsʰəm) 七感切 上 廣韻：【痛也 】
    • SAD
      • vifeel miserable and despondent; (of things:) cause one to be miserable, be woeful, painful
      • vadVvery painfully, woefully
    • CRUEL
      • vi-Pbe terrifying and insensitiveCH
      • vt+prep+Nbe more terrifying than N; be more destructive than NCH
      • vibe cruel, be vicious, be brutalCH
    • COINCIDENCE
      • SHARP
        • QUICK
        • 憯 qiǎn (OC: skhɯɯmʔ MC: tsʰem) 青忝切 上 廣韻：【憯悽青忝切又七感切一 】
        • cǎnEVEN
          • padVcuriously enough even (typically with negatives, SHI)LZ

        Additional information about 憯

        說文解字: 【憯】，痛也。从心、朁聲。 【七感切】

          Criteria
        • SAD

          1. The general word for sadness of any kind is bēi 悲 (ant. huān 歡 "joyful" and xǐ 喜 "delighted").

          2. Yōu 悠 refers to a pensive listlessness, a wistful kind of sadness.

          3. Qī 悽 (ant. lè 樂 "feel acute profound joy") refers to acute profound unhappiness.

          4. Yù 鬱 (ant. xīn 欣 "in high spirits") refers to largely endogenic sadness or depression.

          5. Shāng 傷 (ant. yuè 悅 "be pleased") refers to sadness caused by identifiable external conditions.

          6. Cǎn 慘／憯 refers poetically to a kind of despondency.

          7. Mǐn 閔 / 憫 is a very poetic word which typically refers to a kind of sadness that has external causes and can be close to compassion.

          8. Chóu 愁 refers to an internalised sadness one is reluctant to show openly.

          9. Qī 戚 / 慽 is an archaising elevated word for sadness that is common in poetry.

          10. Qī chuàng 悽愴 refers to sadness typically associated with regret or even remorse.

          NB: The vocabulary of sadness in Chinese poses very special problems because it is to huge: in many cases I am quite unable to determine the exact nuances. This subject requires a special monograph.