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撒

sā / sǎ
verb HSK 7-9 #1,869

Meanings

  1. 1 to let go; to release
  2. 2 to cast; to let loose
  3. 3 to give expression to; to throw out (a tantrum, a fit)

Examples

别撒手！
Bié sāshǒu!
Don't let go of my hand!
小女孩总是对爸爸撒娇。
Xiǎo nǚhái zǒngshì duì bàba sājiāo.
The little girl always acts cute with her dad.
别对妈妈撒谎。
Bié duì māma sāhuǎng.
Don't lie to your mother.

Tips

usage
撒 has two readings. sā (this entry) = to let go / let loose, dominant in modern colloquial compounds: 撒手 (let go), 撒娇 (act cute), 撒谎 (lie — literally 'let loose a lie'), 撒尿 (pee). sǎ = to scatter / sprinkle, the older physical sense, kept for farming and place-name transliterations like 拿撒勒 (Nazareth).
memory
Think of sā as 'opening the fist': 撒手 literally opens the hand, 撒娇 lets out coquettishness, 撒谎 lets out a lie, 撒气 lets out anger (or air). Every sā compound is something escaping a closed hand.

Components

radical
扌 tíshǒupáng
hand (radical form of 手)
Left indexing hand radical 扌 — left-side variant of 手. Anchors 撒 in the hand-action family alongside 抛 (toss), 扔 (throw), 抓 (grab). Letting-go and scattering are both fingers opening to release.
phonetic
散 sàn
to disperse (here phonetic + semantic)
Right 散 supplies the sound (sàn → sā / sǎ with tone shift) and is strongly semantic — 散 itself means 'to scatter, disperse.' A textbook phono-semantic overlap: 散 is the generic action; 撒 specifies 'with the hand.'

Stroke Order

撒 sā