Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Ungrateful; lacking in gratitude: Describes a person who fails to show or feel thankfulness for kindness or benefits received, especially from parents, benefactors, or one's country.
   • Disloyal; unfaithful: Describes a person who betrays trust, loyalty, or moral duty, particularly within important relationships like those between ruler and subject, or between friends.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Đứa con bất nghĩa không thèm nhìn mặt cha mẹ già. (The ungrateful child refuses to see their elderly parents.)
  • Tên bất nghĩa ấy đã phản bội lại người từng cưu mang mình. (That disloyal person betrayed the one who once sheltered him.)
  • Hành động phản loạn là hành động bất nghĩa với quốc gia. (Rebellious action is an act of disloyalty to the nation.)

Advanced Usage

• The term "bất nghĩa" is deeply rooted in Confucian ethics, emphasizing the moral failure to fulfill one's fundamental duties within the "Five Cardinal Relationships" (ngũ luân), such as the duty of a child to a parent or a subject to a ruler.
• It is a strong, condemnatory word often used in moral and literary contexts to describe severe character flaws.

Variants and Related Words

• Vô ơn (adj): Ungrateful. This is a more common synonym for the "ungrateful" aspect, but may lack the specific connotation of betraying a deep moral duty.
  • Kẻ vô ơn không bao giờ được tin cậy. (An ungrateful person can never be trusted.)

Synonyms

• Ungrateful: Not feeling or showing gratitude.
• Disloyal: Failing to be loyal to a person, country, or concept to which one has obligations.
• Unfaithful: Not adhering to promises, allegiance, or vows.
• Ingrate (noun): An ungrateful person.

Related Idioms

• Ăn ở bất nghĩa: To live or behave in a disloyal/unfaithful manner; to lead an ungrateful life.

  • Nó ăn ở bất nghĩa với người đã nuôi nó khôn lớn. (He behaved disloyally towards the person who raised him to adulthood.)

• Bất trung bất nghĩa: A phrase combining "disloyal" and "unfaithful," used to condemn someone as thoroughly treacherous and without moral principle.

  • Tên phản bội đó thật là bất trung bất nghĩa. (That traitor is truly disloyal and unfaithful.)

1. Disloyal
   • ăn ở bất nghĩa
     to behave in a disloyal way