瞧 (qiáo): to look at; to see (colloquial)

Meanings

1 to look at; to see (colloquial)
2 to visit (a doctor)

Characters

瞧

qiáo

to look; to see

Examples

你瞧，那边有只猫。

Nǐ qiáo, nàbian yǒu zhī māo.

Look, there's a cat over there.

让我瞧瞧。

Ràngwǒ qiáoqiao.

Let me take a look.

瞧你说的，我哪有那么厉害。

Qiáo nǐ shuō de, wǒ nǎ yǒu nàme lìhai.

Oh come on, I'm not that great.

瞧不起人是不对的。

Qiáobùqǐ rén shì búduì de.

It's wrong to look down on people.

Tips

usage

瞧 is colloquial and especially common in northern Chinese/Beijing dialect. 瞧瞧 is a casual "take a look." 瞧不起 = to look down on/despise.

register

瞧 has a warm, informal feel. It's used in spoken Chinese the way "look here" or "check this out" is used in English. 看 is the neutral/standard equivalent.

Components

radical

目 mù

eye (left-side radical)

Left eye radical (Kangxi #109) - the five-stroke pictograph of an eye stood on its short side. Anchors 瞧 in the seeing-and-watching family alongside 看 (look), 睡 (sleep, with closed eye), 眠 (slumber), 眨 (blink), 瞄 (aim). Tells the reader: this character names something the eye does - here, a casual "have a look."

phonetic

焦 jiāo

scorched; anxious (phonetic)

Right phonetic 焦 - supplies the sound (jiāo drifted to qiáo, regular palatalisation). Compound of 隹 (bird) over 灬 (fire) = "roasted bird." Pure sound-borrow in 瞧; no scorched-bird flavour carries over. Same phonetic in 蕉 (banana), 礁 (reef), 樵 (woodcutter), 憔 (haggard) - note the medical 憔悴 "haggard" shares the eye-related pallor with looking.