邂 (xiè): to meet by chance (used only in…

Meanings

1 to meet by chance (used only in 邂逅)

Characters

邂

xiè

chance encounter (bound)

Examples

她在机场邂逅了失散多年的老朋友。

Tā zài jīchǎng xièhòu le shīsàn duōnián de lǎopéngyou.

At the airport she ran into an old friend she'd lost touch with years ago.

一个雨夜的邂逅，成了一辈子的友谊。

Yī gè yǔyè de xièhòu, chéng le yībèizi de yǒuyì.

A chance encounter on a rainy night turned into a lifelong friendship.

Tips

usage

Like 囹, this character lives entirely inside one compound: 邂逅 'to meet by chance'. The word is literary and slightly romantic — it's what you'd write about a chance meeting in a novel or a coffee-shop ad, not what you'd say when you bump into your coworker at the supermarket. For everyday 'ran into' use 遇见 or 偶遇.

memory

Read 邂 as 'walking (辶) and untying (解) your plans' — you set out on the road, your fixed itinerary comes undone, and there she is. The right side 解 'untie/release' also drifts the sound (jiě → xiè).

Components

radical

辶 chuò

walk; movement

The 'walking' radical (left-side variant of 辵), Kangxi #162. Even though it sits at the bottom-left, in stroke order it's written LAST — three strokes that wrap under and around. It marks travel and motion chars: 进, 过, 送, 通 — so here it signals 'meeting on the road'.

phonetic

解 jiě

to untie; to release

Mainly phonetic — 解 supplies the sound, drifting in this word to xiè (the same series also gives 懈 'slack' and the surname reading xiè for 解 itself). A faint semantic flavor: things 'coming loose' fits an unexpected encounter.