què
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to discuss
  2. 2 to deliberate
  3. 3 state monopoly (on a commodity)

Examples

Shuāngfāng shāngquè le hézuò de tiáojiàn.
The two sides discussed and weighed the terms of cooperation.
Zhège jiélùn hái yǒudài shāngquè.
This conclusion is still open to debate.

Tips

usage
In modern writing survives mainly in 商榷 — a polite, formal way to say 'this point is debatable' or 'let us discuss further'. The old meaning was a government monopoly on goods like salt and tea.

Components

radical
tree; wood
Left-side wood radical . The earliest sense was a single wooden plank used as a footbridge; from 'one crossing point' grew the ideas of monopoly and, later, careful weighing of a matter.
phonetic
(here) sound
Right side supplies the sound què; the same phonetic appears in and .

Stroke Order

què