忌

1. Avoidance and Taboo: Shunning or avoiding something because it is forbidden, unlucky, or spiritually dangerous (e.g., naming taboos, inauspicious calendar dates).

2. Apprehension and Dread: Anticipatory fear or superstitious apprehension regarding a specific omen or consequence.

3. Jealousy and Resentment: Envy or social aversion; resentment triggered by another's status.

• Transitive verb: to shun, avoid, or dread.
• Intransitive/Stative verb: to be jealous, envious, or resentful.
• Noun: a forbidden thing, a naming taboo, or an inauspicious date.

• vs 恐 (kǒng): While both involve fear, 忌 typically implies anticipatory avoidance rather than acute terror.
• vs 妒 (dù): Both cover jealousy, but 忌 tends toward general resentment or dislike of another's status, whereas 妒 implies a specific desire to possess what the other has.
• vs Hatred: 忌 is characterized by aversion and the drawing of a boundary rather than active malice or simple hatred.

• Internal vs. External: This glyph focuses on the internal reaction (aversion) rather than an external action (attack).
• The Semantic Chain: There is a sliding scale from fear → avoidance → taboo. Translators should select the term based on register: "dreaded" for personal contexts, or "forbidden" for ritual and administrative manuals.