呷 (xiā): to sip

Meanings

1 to sip
2 to drink in small mouthfuls

Characters

呷

xiā

to sip

Examples

他呷了一口茶。

Tā xiā le yì kǒu chá.

He took a sip of tea.

老人坐在窗边慢慢地呷着酒。

Lǎorén zuò zài chuāng biān mànman de xiā zhe jiǔ.

The old man sat by the window, slowly sipping his wine.

Tips

register

Literary/written register — you'll meet 呷 in classical-style fiction and tea-culture writing more than in everyday speech. The everyday equivalent is 抿 (mǐn) or simply 喝一小口 (drink a small mouthful). Taiwan reading is xiá; mainland uses xiā.

memory

口 (mouth) + 甲 (jiǎ, phonetic, also 'first/shell'). The mouth radical signals a drinking/eating verb; 甲 lends the sound. Visualize the small armoured mouth taking dainty sips.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Left mouth radical — a small square picturing an open mouth, the indexing radical for verbs of eating, drinking and speaking. In 呷 it tags the action: a small drawing-in sip, the gentle slurp of taking tea or soup. Same family: 喝 to drink, 吸 to suck.

phonetic

甲 jiǎ

shell; first (here phonetic)

Right 甲 supplies the sound — jiǎ drifting to xiā via historical palatal shift. 甲 pictures a turtle shell or seed-coat, hence "first in the cycle, armoured." None of that meaning is carried; the phonetic just locks in a southern-flavoured sip-sound that appears in 呷茶 to sip tea.