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谑

謔
xuè
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to joke
  2. 2 to banter
  3. 3 to tease
  4. 4 to mock playfully

Examples

老朋友在一起，喜欢互相戏谑。
Lǎopéngyou zài yìqǐ, xǐhuan hùxiāng xìxuè.
Old friends together love to banter and joke with each other.
他谑笑的话让大家都笑了。
Tā xuè xiào de huà ràng dàjiā dōu xiào le.
His teasing words made everyone laugh.

Tips

usage
谑 is literary and rarely stands alone in speech. You will mostly meet it in the set phrase 戏谑 ('to banter, to jest') or the idiom 谑而不虐 ('to joke without being hurtful').

Components

radical
讠 yán
speech; words
讠 is the left-side form of the speech radical 言. It marks 谑 as something done with words — here, joking and teasing.
phonetic
虐 nüè
cruel; to mistreat
虐 ('cruel') lends the sound and a faint flavor: words that tease, with a hint of biting edge. The idiom 谑而不虐 plays directly on this pair.

Stroke Order

谑 xuè