shì
verb #10,082

Meanings

  1. 1 to decorate
  2. 2 ornament
  3. 3 to conceal

Examples

Zhuāngshì
to decorate; decoration
Shǒushì
jewelry
Xiūshì
to adorn; to polish

Tips

memory
(food) + (cloth) + — adorning something to make it presentable

Components

radical
shí
food (radical form of 食)
is the left-side form of (food, eat) — historically marking objects of serving and presentation. The link to decoration here is oblique: dressing a vessel or table for a banquet. The radical also indexes with meal, drink, hall.
semantic
jīn
cloth; cloth-like wrap
The right side is a fused person-and-cloth shape: a small two-stroke person-residue compressed onto (cloth). originally meant rubbing a surface clean with a cloth and dressing it up — the cloth element anchors that meaning. Today covers ornaments and embellishment generally.

Stroke Order

shì