khổ thân

Thân thiện

Cô bé ngồi một mình trên ghế đá dưới trời mưa phùn, gương mặt lộ rõ vẻ buồn bã khiến ai nhìn cũng thấy khổ thân.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Self-tormenting, self-afflicting: Describes the state of causing oneself unnecessary suffering, distress, or hardship, often through one's own thoughts, actions, or persistent negative emotions.
   • Pitiable, deserving of pity: Can describe someone in a state that evokes sympathy or compassion from others due to their suffering or difficult situation.

Usage

• As an adjective: Used to describe a person or their state. It often carries a tone of admonishment or sympathy, suggesting the suffering is partly self-inflicted or unnecessarily prolonged.
  • Đừng có khổ thân như thế! (Don't be so self-tormenting like that!)
  • Nhìn nó khổ thân quá. (He/She looks so pitiable.)

Examples

• (To go on grieving is just self-tormenting because a dead person cannot rise again.)
• (She keeps worrying about the past, it's truly self-tormenting.)
• (The orphan child looks truly pitiable.)

Advanced Usage

• The word is often used in advice or exclamations to tell someone to stop a behavior that is harming themselves emotionally.
  • Khổ thân tôi quá! (How pitiable I am! / I'm so miserable!) – An exclamation expressing one's own perceived suffering.

Variants and Related Words

• Khổ (adj, n): Suffering, hardship, misery. The root word.
• Khổ sở (adj): Miserable, distressed, in a state of hardship. Often describes physical or material suffering.
• Thân (n): Body, self. In this compound, it emphasizes the personal, self-directed nature of the suffering.

Synonyms

• Tự làm khổ mình: To make oneself suffer.
• Đáng thương: Pitiable, deserving pity.
• Tội nghiệp: Pitiful, pathetic (often evokes stronger sympathy).

Notes on Different Meanings

1. Primary Meaning (Self-tormenting): Focuses on the active or passive role one plays in one's own suffering. It implies a degree of unnecessary persistence in a painful state.
2. Secondary Meaning (Pitiable): Focuses on the external perception of someone's suffering, evoking compassion. The line between "self-inflicted" and "externally caused" suffering can blur in this usage.

Học thuật

1. Self-tormenting
   • Buồn rầu mãi chỉ khổ thân mà người chết cũng không sống lại được
     To go on grieving is just self-tormenting because a dead, cannot rise again