shè
verb HSK 5 #1,157

Meanings

  1. 1 to shoot; to fire
  2. 2 to emit; to radiate

Examples

Tā cháo mùbiāo shè le yī jiàn.
He shot an arrow at the target.
Tàiyáng shè chū qiángliè de guāngmáng.
The sun emitted intense light.
Tā shèmén défēn le!
He scored with a shot on goal!

Tips

usage
is used for shooting arrows, bullets, or goals in sports. 射门 means "to shoot (at goal)" in soccer/football.
memory
The character contains (body) and (inch): the body draws the bow to release at just the right inch.

Components

radical
cùn
inch; hand-measure
Hand-measure radical on the right - the indexing radical (Kangxi #41). The hand that releases the arrow with precise timing. Carries the controlled hand-action sense seen in (seal), (honour), (guide).
semantic
shēn
body
Body radical on the left - semantic. The original oracle-bone form of was a bow with arrow plus a hand, depicting archery directly. By the seal script the bow had stylised into , fixing the modern visual of a body drawing the weapon. The whole body engages in archery.

Stroke Order

shè