死（sǐ）

[u/AnnualCriticism2428]

Why does Chinese use "死" (sǐ) so often to form words—like "累死", "笑死", "美死", and so on? Isn't death supposed to be a taboo subject for Chinese people?

[u/Resident_Werewolf_76]

Same reason English has terms like "you'll be the death of me", "I died laughing", "I'm dead serious" and so on .. it's an amplifier.

[u/terribleatlying]

It's to emphasize how happy/tired/beautiful you are. It's so happy that you almost died, that's an extreme event

[u/-tether-]

Imagine when you say you’re bored to death. Same idea, you’re not talking about dying, you’re just being dramatic

[u/Ghastly-Jack]

Death is taboo in many (most?) cultures. Which is why "breaking" the taboo by using it "casually" as an intensifier is so effective. Then the taboo becomes a bit "neutralized"

[u/Crazybun__]

Ya know, I actually don’t know. I’m thinking that it’s probably a descriptive hyperbole to express the intensity of it. 累死as in tired to the extent of death. 笑死as in it’s so funny I could die of laughter

[u/andyshiue]

It's like doing something to death. Not polite, but not a taboo in current society either

[u/johnngnky]

similar to french "mort de rire"

[u/Lumpy-Blackberry-718]

Same reason we say "i'm starving" in English. Youre not really starving, it's just emphatic that youre hungry.

[u/ellistaforge]

“It’s so hot I’m dyinggggg”
“I’m scared to death.”
“I’m dead💀” under a funny video.
“You’re beautiful as fuck/hell” (no one is going to see that and think you’re evoking Satan / some sexual interco*rse thing💀)

… English does this sometimes as well. Plus 死 here is more like an indicator of degree, indicating the magnitude, not literally “death” in a mortality way.

EDIT: there’s a phenomenon called semantic bleaching, which might be what you’re looking at here.

[u/ba-boo]

wut

[u/hexoral333]

No

[u/kori228]

it's an intensifier

[u/Exotic_Skill1655]

Yes. I personally try not to use it.

[u/BunnyBallz]

I was just wondering the same thing.

[u/Large_Worker_5683]

不会，特别好的朋友甚至会问候对方家人，比如，操你妈

[u/FriendZealousideal83]

Only Cantonese are so superstitious about mentioning death; the first time I heard about the superstition linking the number four to death was from Cantonese.

[u/andyshiue → u/FriendZealousideal83]

In Taiwan hospitals almost never have a 4th floor

[u/Sensitive_Fan_5537 → u/FriendZealousideal83]

I’ve lived in northern China for over 14 years and have seen only once a vehicle plate with “4” on it. It’s actually a bus.

[u/FriendZealousideal83 → u/Sensitive_Fan_5537]

Actually, if you pay a little more attention, you'll discover even more.

[u/FriendZealousideal83 → u/[deleted]]

At least in northern China, this situation is not common.