sǒu
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to set a dog on; to sic (archaic)
  2. 2 to incite; to egg on (classical)

Examples

闯入者
Tā sǒu gǒu yǎo chuǎngrùzhě.
He set the hound on the intruder.

Tips

history
is not used independently in modern Chinese; it survives mainly in the literary compound 嗾使 (to instigate, to put someone up to something). It pairs the mouth radical with the phonetic , picturing the hissing sound made to urge a dog to attack.
register
Archaic and literary only; seen in old texts and etymology notes, not in everyday speech. The classical line 公嗾夫獒焉 (the duke sicced that mastiff on him) appears in the Zuo Zhuan.

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
The mouth radical signals that this is a sound made with the mouth — the sharp hiss or call used to urge a dog forward, fitting the 'to sic' meaning.
phonetic
clan; family
Supplies the sound. The reading has drifted far from to sǒu; it carries no meaning here, only the phonetic skeleton.

Stroke Order

sǒu