讪

訕
shàn
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to mock; to ridicule
  2. 2 to slander; to speak ill of
  3. 3 embarrassed; awkward (in 讪讪)

Examples

HSK 7-9
见没人附和,他讪讪地笑了笑。
Jiàn méirén fùhè, tā shànshàn de xiào le xiào.
Seeing that no one agreed, he grinned awkwardly and dropped the subject.
HSK 7-9
Búyào bèihòu shànxiào dǐhuǐ biérén.
Don't go around mocking and slandering others behind their backs.

Tips

usage
Two flavors: 讪笑 (to laugh at / sneer) and 讪谤 (to slander). But 讪讪 means 'embarrassed, sheepish' - the face you make when caught out, as in 讪讪地走开 (slink off in embarrassment).

Components

radical
讠 yán
speech (left-side radical)
Speech radical on the left, side-form of 言. It marks an act of words - here mocking or slanderous speech. Same family as 讽 to satirize, 谤 to defame, 讥 to taunt.
phonetic
山 shān
mountain
Right side 山 supplies the sound (shān to shàn, a tone shift). It is purely phonetic; the mountain shape carries no meaning into this 'to ridicule' word.

Stroke Order

讪 shàn