interjection #18,085

Meanings

  1. 1 hiss (onomatopoeia)
  2. 2 sizzle
  3. 3 whiz

Examples

HSK 5
Shé fāchū sī sī de shēngyīn.
The snake made a hissing sound.
HSK 7-9
Lúntāi lòuqì shí fāchū sī de yī shēng.
The tire let out a hiss when it leaked air.

Tips

usage
Often reduplicated as 咝咝 to represent a sustained hissing or sizzling sound. Can describe snakes, leaking air, frying food, etc.

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
Three-stroke mouth radical on the left, the indexing radical. is the onomatopoeia for a hissing sound - air through teeth, a hiss of pain, a sizzle. Mouth radical signals sound-from-the-body, the same role it plays in ow, ha, hiss, to call out.
phonetic
silk; thread
Right side supplies the sound - sī read straight across with no shift. The silk imagery is a fortunate bonus: a hiss is a thin, sustained, thread-like sound, so the phonetic doubles as a sensory metaphor.

Stroke Order