喋

dié
verb #30,978

Meanings

  1. 1 to chatter, talk on and on (in 喋喋 diédié)
  2. 2 to tread (in 喋血 diéxuè 'to wade through blood')

Examples

HSK 6
Tā diédié-bùxiū de jiǎng le yī gè xiǎoshí.
She prattled on without stopping for an hour.
HSK 7-9
电影《喋血双雄》是吴宇森的代表作。
Diànyǐng 《 Diéxuè Shuāngxióng 》 shì Wú Yǔsēn de dàibiǎozuò.
The film 'The Killer' (literally 'Bloodshed Two Heroes') is a signature work of John Woo.

Tips

usage
喋 rarely appears alone in modern Chinese - it lives almost entirely in two compounds: 喋喋不休 ('to prattle on without stopping') and 喋血 ('bloodbath', literally 'to tread on blood'). The latter gives John Woo's classic film its Chinese title 喋血双雄.
memory
Mouth radical 口 + 枼 (leaf, phonetic): two paper-thin lips flapping endlessly = chatter.

Components

radical
口 kǒu
mouth
Mouth radical on the left - pictograph of an open mouth. Indexes 喋 in the speech family with 说 speak, 唠 prattle, 唇 lips. Marks the character as something the mouth does; combined with the right side, narrows to the tap-tap of unstoppable talk.
phonetic
枼 yè
flat; leaf; generation
Right side 枼 supplies the sound through a drift: yè to dié. It is the older form behind modern 葉/叶 (leaf), depicting a tree with broad flat leaves. Rare on its own today, surviving as a phonetic component. Same phonetic in 蝶 butterfly, 谍 spy, 牒 document.

Stroke Order

喋 dié