sàng / sāng
verb #10,994

Meanings

  1. 1 to lose (something abstract such as courage or one's life)
  2. 2 to forfeit; to be deprived of
  3. 3 dejected; discouraged

Examples

HSK 4
Shībài hòu tā chèdǐ sàngshī le xìnxīn.
After the failure he completely lost his confidence.
HSK 5
Bùshǎo rén zài nà chǎng dìzhèn zhōng sàngshēng.
Many people lost their lives in that earthquake.
HSK 7-9
Bié zhème jǔsàng, hái yǒu jīhuì.
Don't be so discouraged - there is still a chance.

Tips

usage
The sàng reading is the productive verb for losing something you cannot hold in your hand - courage, life, hope, status: 丧失 (to forfeit), 丧命 (to lose one's life), 垂头丧气 (crestfallen). It also drives the youth-culture noun 丧文化, the mood of cheerful resignation popular online.

Components

ideograph
sàng
mourning; funeral
The whole shape is a fused remainder of the traditional form , which stacked two mouths over (clothing) - mourners weeping around a funeral garment. Simplification compressed it all into one block, but the bottom (to perish) still carries the core: every reading traces back to loss. Indexed under Kangxi #1 (yī, one) by tradition; the radical is not separable in the modern form.

Filed under radical (shí, #24) by convention. is not a separate component in , so no strokes are highlighted.

Stroke Order

sàng