晒 (shài): to dry in the sun; to sunbathe

Meanings

1 to dry in the sun; to sunbathe
2 to share (photos/life online); to show off

Characters

晒

shài

to dry in the sun; to bask; to share (online)

日 (sun) + 西 (west) hints at the afternoon sun drying things.

Examples

HSK 3

把衣服拿出去晒一晒。

Bǎ yīfu ná chūqù shàiyīshài.

Take the clothes out to dry in the sun.

HSK 3

别在太阳下晒太久。

Bié zài tàiyáng xià shài tài jiǔ.

Don't sunbathe for too long.

HSK 4

她喜欢在朋友圈晒照片。

Tā xǐhuān zài péngyouquān shài zhàopiàn.

She likes to share photos on social media.

Tips

usage

晒 originally meant 'to dry in the sun' but has gained a modern meaning of 'posting/sharing online' - like showing off your food, vacation, etc. on WeChat Moments (朋友圈).

memory

The sun radical 日 is on the left - things are exposed to the sun, or exposed online.

Components

radical

日 rì

sun; day

Sun radical on the left makes the meaning concrete: anything done with sunlight. It indexes 晒 in the sun-family alongside 晴 sunny, 暖 warm, 明 bright. Modern Chinese has stretched it from drying laundry to 晒朋友圈 'sunning your social feed' - exposing your life to public light.

phonetic

西 xī

west

Right side is 西 west, supplying the sound - xī drifting to shài via standard sibilant shift. A faint semantic echo helps: 西 originally pictured a bird settling at sunset, when the western sun does its drying work. The simplified 晒 replaces the older 曬 with this cleaner phonetic.