He spoke out frankly and uprightly, daring to remonstrate with the ruler.
Tips
history
謇 is literary and not used independently in modern Chinese. It survives in the bound term 謇謇 ('speaking loyally and frankly', famous from Qu Yuan's Li Sao); the everyday word for blunt speech is 直言.
register
Classical only — found in early poetry and historical prose about loyal ministers, not in modern speech or writing.
言 the speech radical sits at the bottom and carries the meaning — the character is about a manner of speaking: blunt, upright, or halting.
phonetic
寋jiǎn
top phonetic element
The top is an abbreviated form of 寒 ('cold', with its bottom dropped), used purely for the sound jiǎn. The same abbreviated phonetic gives 蹇 (lame) and 謇 itself.
