赊 (shē) · to buy or sell on credit, to defer payment

Meanings

1 to buy or sell on credit
2 to defer payment
3 distant; long (in time)

Characters

赊

shē

to buy on credit

Examples

HSK 5

他从不赊东西。

Tā cóngbù shē dōngxī.

He never buys things on credit.

HSK 6

老板，这次能不能赊一下账？

Lǎobǎn, zhècì néngbùnéng shē yíxià zhàng?

Boss, can I put this on credit this time?

Tips

history

The character carries the 贝 ('shell/money') radical, signalling its commercial origins: shells were China's earliest currency, so 贝 marks money and value words. The famous Lu Xun story has Ah Q 赊 a couple bowls of wine, capturing the everyday small-credit economy of pre-modern village shops.

Components

radical

贝 bèi

cowrie; money

Cowrie radical on the left, the early-China currency shell, marker for anything financial. Carries the meaning of 赊: buying on credit, taking goods now and settling the bill later, an explicitly monetary transaction. Sits with 账 account, 货 goods, 贷 loan, 贸 trade, the same family of money-handling words built on this little shell.

phonetic

佘 shé

surname

Right side 佘 supplies the sound: shé shifting to shē, a regular tone change. 佘 itself is a rare surname with no semantic relation to credit; pure phonetic. The common compound 赊账 means 'to put it on the tab', a familiar concept in small village shops where neighbours settled accounts at month's end.