一见钟情
- Literal
- at one look, the heart given over
- Figurative
- To fall in love with someone the moment you see them; it's also used, half jokingly, about a thing or a place you take to instantly.
Where does 一见钟情 come from?
It doesn't come from any story we can vouch for. It is built on 钟情, "to pour out one's affection," where 钟 means to gather or concentrate in one spot: the whole feeling settles on a single person. In front of it sits 一见, "at first sight," so the phrase packs an instant infatuation into four syllables. It settled into the language as a set expression in narrative writing and is thoroughly everyday now, in conversation and in the gossip pages alike.
How is 一见钟情 used? Two examples
- 他们是在朋友的婚礼上一见钟情的。
They fell in love at first sight at a friend's wedding.
- 我对这家小书店一见钟情，从此每周都去。
I fell for this little bookshop the moment I saw it, and I've gone every week since.
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.
