涕

tì
noun #19,746

Meanings

  1. 1 tears
  2. 2 nasal mucus
  3. 3 snot (literary/classical)

Examples

HSK 6
Háizi kū de tì lèi héngliú.
The child cried with tears and snot running everywhere.
HSK 7-9
Tā tòngkūliútì, huǐhèn bùyǐ.
He wept bitterly with tears streaming down, filled with remorse.

Tips

register
涕 is literary/formal. In modern spoken Chinese, 眼泪 is used for tears and 鼻涕 for nasal mucus. 涕 alone is bookish and found mostly in idioms like 痛哭流涕 (weeping bitterly).

Components

radical
氵 shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Three-drops water radical on the left, side-form of 水 - three abbreviated waves indexing all liquid characters. Here it stands for tears (and historically for nasal mucus, the original meaning before 鼻涕 narrowed it). Family of bodily liquids: 汗 sweat, 泪 tears, 涎 saliva, 液 fluid.
phonetic
弟 dì
younger brother
Right side 弟 supplies the sound: dì → tì with d/t alternation. 弟 originally pictured cord wound around a stake in order - by extension 'sequence,' then 'younger sibling.' Same phonetic family: 第 ordinal, 梯 ladder (stepwise), 剃 to shave. Faint semantic echo: tears tied to family, the weeping of younger siblings is a classical image of grief.

Stroke Order

涕 tì