shǐ
verb #8,933

Meanings

  1. 1 to drive
  2. 2 to go fast

Examples

HSK 7-9
Jiàshǐ xūyào zhuānzhù hé nàixīn.
Driving requires concentration and patience.
HSK 7-9
Kǎchē zài gāosù gōnglù shàng xíngshǐ.
The truck is traveling on the highway.
HSK 7-9
Lúnchuán huǎnhuǎn shǐ jìn gǎngkǒu.
The ship sailed slowly into the harbor.

Tips

memory
(horse) + (history) - driving horses fast.

Components

radical
horse
Left horse radical - simplified pictograph of a galloping horse with mane and four legs. The indexing radical, anchoring in the transport-and-speed family with gallop, ride, drive. Originally 'to drive a horse fast'; the meaning carried into modern 驾驶 to drive (a car).
phonetic
shǐ
history; record
Right supplies the sound - shǐ carried over without change. itself means 'history, official record' but contributes no semantic content to . Same phonetic family appears in 使 to use/cause, to drive. Pure phonetic borrowing - the action sense comes wholly from the horse radical.

Stroke Order

shǐ