晒 (shài): to dry in the sun; to sunbathe

Meanings

1 to dry in the sun; to sunbathe
2 to share (photos/life online); to show off

Characters

晒

shài

to dry in the sun; to bask; to share (online)

日 (sun) + 西 (west) hints at the afternoon sun drying things.

Examples

把衣服拿出去晒一晒。

Bǎ yīfu ná chūqù shàiyīshài.

Take the clothes out to dry in the sun.

她喜欢在朋友圈晒照片。

Tā xǐhuān zài péngyouquān shài zhàopiàn.

She likes to share photos on social media.

别在太阳下晒太久。

Bié zài tàiyáng xià shài tài jiǔ.

Don't sunbathe for too long.

Tips

usage

晒 originally meant 'to dry in the sun' but has gained a modern meaning of 'posting/sharing online' — like showing off your food, vacation, etc. on WeChat Moments (朋友圈).

memory

The sun radical 日 is on the left — things are exposed to the sun, or exposed online.

Components

radical

日 rì

sun; day

Sun radical on the left makes the meaning concrete: anything done with sunlight. It indexes 晒 in the sun-family alongside 晴 sunny, 暖 warm, 明 bright. Modern Chinese has stretched it from drying laundry to 晒朋友圈 'sunning your social feed' — exposing your life to public light.

phonetic

西 xī

west

Right side is 西 west, supplying the sound — xī drifting to shài via standard sibilant shift. A faint semantic echo helps: 西 originally pictured a bird settling at sunset, when the western sun does its drying work. The simplified 晒 replaces the older 曬 with this cleaner phonetic.