Posted by Jonah Lopin on Thu, Jun 10, 2010 @ 09:18 PM
In a recent post I discussed the phrase 我无所谓, which means "I don't care".
The word 无, pronounced wu2, means without. Thank you, Mandarin, for having such a useful word.
You can use this word with the word for brain (脑 = nao3) to make 无脑 = wu2nao3 = brainless.
You can also use 无 to make the word "lawless". You first need to know the word 法, pronounced fa3, which means "law". (Of course, 法 also means "method", "way" and "Buddhist teaching", but let's ignore that for a moment.) You also need to know the word 天, pronounced tian1, which means "heaven". (It also means "day" and "sky".)
Now you can make the phrase 无法无天 = without law without heaven = lawless, as in, that guy is 无法无天.