唏 (xī) · sound of sobbing, sighing sound (onomatopoeia)

Meanings

1 sound of sobbing
2 sighing sound (onomatopoeia)

Characters

唏

xī

sound of sobbing / sighing (onomatopoeia)

Examples

HSK 3

她唏唏嘘嘘地哭了起来。

Tā xī xī xū xū de kū le qǐlái.

She began to cry with sighs and sobs.

HSK 6

听到这个消息，他唏嘘不已。

Tīngdào zhège xiāoxi, tā xī xū bùyǐ.

Upon hearing the news, he couldn't stop sighing.

Tips

usage

唏 rarely appears alone. Its most common compound is 唏嘘 (xīxū), meaning to sigh repeatedly with emotion, often out of regret, sadness, or nostalgia.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Left mouth radical, a pictograph of an open mouth. Indexes 唏 in the vocal-sound family with 啊, 哈, 嘿, 嘘. 唏 means to sigh or sob, the breathy 'xī' coming out of the throat, so the mouth radical names the body part producing the sigh. Often doubled as 唏嘘 'sigh deeply.'

phonetic

希 xī

to hope; rare

Right side 希 supplies the sound xī exactly. Same phonetic in 稀 sparse, 晞 to dry in the sun, 唏. 希 contributes no semantic flavour to the sighing sound; it is a pure phonetic loan whose hope/rare meanings stay outside the door of 唏.