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撒

sā / sǎ
verb HSK 7-9 #1,869

Meanings

  1. 1 to let go; to release
  2. 2 to cast; to let loose
  3. 3 to give expression to; to throw out (a tantrum, a fit)

Examples

HSK 2
别撒手！
Bié sāshǒu!
Don't let go of my hand!
HSK 4
别对妈妈撒谎。
Bié duì māma sāhuǎng.
Don't lie to your mother.
HSK 7-9
小女孩总是对爸爸撒娇。
Xiǎo nǚhái zǒngshì duì bàba sājiāo.
The little girl always acts cute with her dad.

Tips

usage
撒 has two readings. sā (this entry) = to let go / let loose, dominant in modern colloquial compounds: 撒手 (let go), 撒娇 (act cute), 撒谎 (lie - literally 'let loose a lie'), 撒尿 (pee). sǎ = to scatter / sprinkle, the older physical sense, kept for farming and place-name transliterations like 拿撒勒 (Nazareth).
memory
Think of sā as 'opening the fist': 撒手 literally opens the hand, 撒娇 lets out coquettishness, 撒谎 lets out a lie, 撒气 lets out anger (or air). Every sā compound is something escaping a closed hand.

Components

radical
扌 shǒu
hand (radical form of 手)
Left indexing hand radical 扌 - left-side variant of 手. Anchors 撒 in the hand-action family alongside 抛 (toss), 扔 (throw), 抓 (grab). Letting-go and scattering are both fingers opening to release.
phonetic
散 sàn
to disperse (here phonetic + semantic)
Right 散 supplies the sound (sàn → sā / sǎ with tone shift) and is strongly semantic - 散 itself means 'to scatter, disperse.' A textbook phono-semantic overlap: 散 is the generic action; 撒 specifies 'with the hand.'

Stroke Order

撒 sā