差 (chāi): to dispatch

Meanings

1 to dispatch
2 to send on an errand
3 errand
4 official assignment

Characters

差

chāi

to dispatch

Examples

下个月我要去上海出差。

Xiàgèyuè wǒ yào qù Shànghǎi chūchāi.

Next month I have to go to Shanghai on a business trip.

老板给他派了一件重要的差事。

Lǎobǎn gěi tā pài le yī jiàn zhòngyào de chāishi.

The boss assigned him an important errand.

从前邮差挨家挨户送信。

Cóngqián yóuchāi āijiā-āihù sòng xìn.

In the old days, the postman delivered letters door to door.

Tips

mistakes

差 (1st tone, with -i) is the 'errand/dispatch' reading. It almost never stands alone — look for it inside 出差 (business trip), 差事 (assignment), 邮差 (postman), and 差遣 (to dispatch). Distinct from chà 'bad' and chā 'difference'.

history

差 as 'official errand' comes from imperial bureaucracy: a superior 'sent' a subordinate on a specific mission. The 钦差 'imperial envoy' carried the emperor's personal authority — a title still echoed in modern journalism and party usage.

Components

radical

工 gōng

work; tool

The 工 radical at the bottom serves as the indexing handle and represents a measuring tool — a carpenter's square. Combined with the sheep above, the character pictures the act of measuring and grading livestock. The discrepancies revealed by such measuring became the abstract 'difference, lack.' Indexing radical.

semantic

羊 yáng

sheep (compressed form)

The upper portion is a compressed 羊 (sheep) — head and horns visible. Combined with the 工 (work/tool) component below, the original character depicted measuring or selecting sheep, comparing one to another. From 'comparing/sorting' came 'difference,' and from notice of inequality came 'poor, lacking.'