神经

Purrfecdizzo
 October 18, 2012, 03:35 PM posted in General Discussion

Hello,

I have a question about the term 神经, and when I look this word up, I get 'nerve', but the problem is that nerve can refer to more than one thing. It may mean 'force of courage', or it could refer to 'nerves in an organism'. I know that a related word is 神经病 which can be translated as crazy, but I would supposed that maybe the first meaning would be more applicable, but the second could work as well. I don't want to simply assume, or guess, and I am not sure of what source to use to find this answer. Any ideas?

Most sincerely,

George.

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Right-Wingnut
 October 18, 2012, 08:47 PM

神经 refers to the nerves in the body.

神经病 literally means 'nerve disease'.

神经系统 means 'nervous system.

No language dictionary should use 'nerve' as the only definition for a word when 'courage' is meant. I'm not saying Chinese doesn't have this side-meaning for nerve, but I haven't seen it.