心甘情愿
- Literal
- heart willing, feelings desiring it
- Figurative
- Perfectly willing; to do something gladly and of one's own accord, with no reluctance or complaint.
Where does 心甘情愿 come from?
It does not come from a specific tale; it is a set phrase built from two parallel pairs, 心甘 ("the heart is content") and 情愿 ("the feelings desire it"), which together stress an entirely voluntary willingness. Its older variant 甘心情愿 is already attested in Song- and Yuan-dynasty texts (for instance in 《摭青杂说》 and the plays of Guan Hanqing), with the modern form 心甘情愿 settling later. Today it is very common in everyday speech and the press.
How is 心甘情愿 used? Two examples
- 为了照顾生病的母亲，她心甘情愿放弃了那份好工作。
To care for her sick mother, she gladly gave up that good job.
- 这是我自己的选择，再苦再累我也心甘情愿。
This is my own choice; however hard and tiring it gets, I'm perfectly willing to do it.
In Wanyu, all 400 chengyu have audio on every sentence, and you can save them to your decks and review them with spaced repetition. Free.
