瞧 (qiáo) · to look at; to see

Meanings

1 to look at; to see
2 to visit (a doctor)

Characters

瞧

qiáo

to look; to see

Examples

HSK 2

让我瞧瞧。

Ràngwǒ qiáoqiao.

Let me take a look.

HSK 3

瞧不起人是不对的。

Qiáobùqǐ rén shì búduì de.

It's wrong to look down on people.

HSK 4

瞧你说的，我哪有那么厉害。

Qiáo nǐ shuō de, wǒ nǎ yǒu nàme lìhai.

Oh come on, I'm not that great.

Tips

usage

瞧 is colloquial and especially common in northern Chinese/Beijing dialect. 瞧瞧 is a casual "take a look." 瞧不起 = to look down on/despise.

register

瞧 has a warm, informal feel. It's used in spoken Chinese the way "look here" or "check this out" is used in English. 看 is the neutral/standard equivalent.

Components

radical

目 mù

eye (left-side radical)

Left eye radical (Kangxi #109) - the five-stroke pictograph of an eye stood on its short side. Anchors 瞧 in the seeing-and-watching family alongside 看 (look), 睡 (sleep, with closed eye), 眠 (slumber), 眨 (blink), 瞄 (aim). Tells the reader: this character names something the eye does - here, a casual "have a look."

phonetic

焦 jiāo

scorched; anxious (phonetic)

Right phonetic 焦 - supplies the sound (jiāo drifted to qiáo, regular palatalisation). Compound of 隹 (bird) over 灬 (fire) = "roasted bird." Pure sound-borrow in 瞧; no scorched-bird flavour carries over. Same phonetic in 蕉 (banana), 礁 (reef), 樵 (woodcutter), 憔 (haggard) - note the medical 憔悴 "haggard" shares the eye-related pallor with looking.