shù
verb #3,782

Meanings

  1. 1 to forgive
  2. 2 to pardon
  3. 3 to excuse

Examples

Shù wǒ zhíyán, nǐ de fāng'àn yǒu wèntí.
Forgive me for being blunt, but your plan has problems.
Shù wǒ bùnéng tóngyì.
Pardon me, but I cannot agree.

Tips

register
is literary and formal. It appears most often in set phrases like 直言 (forgive my frankness) or 奉陪 (excuse me for not keeping you company).
memory
is composed of (rú, like) on top and (xīn, heart) on the bottom — to forgive is to have a heart that treats others as you would yourself.

Components

radical
xīn
heart
Heart radical at the bottom — the full 4-stroke form (rather than the left-side variant). means 'forgive / be lenient', a heart-based virtue, so is fully semantic. Joins the heart family with think, wish, anger, endure.
phonetic
as; like
Phonetic — rú → shù (irregular shift). means 'as / like / according to', a meaning Confucius drew on for : treating others as you would yourself. The Analects defines as 己所不欲勿施于人 'don't do to others what you don't want done to yourself' — a literal 'as-heart' ethic.

Stroke Order

shù