邂 (xiè) · to meet by chance

Meanings

1 to meet by chance

Characters

邂

xiè

chance encounter (bound)

Examples

HSK 7-9

她在机场邂逅了失散多年的老朋友。

Tā zài jīchǎng xièhòu le shīsàn duōnián de lǎopéngyou.

At the airport she ran into an old friend she'd lost touch with years ago.

HSK 7-9

一个雨夜的邂逅，成了一辈子的友谊。

Yī gè yǔyè de xièhòu, chéng le yíbèizi de yǒuyì.

A chance encounter on a rainy night turned into a lifelong friendship.

Tips

usage

Like 囹, this character lives entirely inside one compound: 邂逅 'to meet by chance'. The word is literary and slightly romantic - it's what you'd write about a chance meeting in a novel or a coffee-shop ad, not what you'd say when you bump into your coworker at the supermarket. For everyday 'ran into' use 遇见 or 偶遇.

memory

Read 邂 as 'walking (辶) and untying (解) your plans' - you set out on the road, your fixed itinerary comes undone, and there she is. The right side 解 'untie/release' also drifts the sound (jiě → xiè).

Components

radical

辶 chuò

walk; movement

The 'walking' radical (left-side variant of 辵), Kangxi #162. Even though it sits at the bottom-left, in stroke order it's written LAST - three strokes that wrap under and around. It marks travel and motion chars: 进, 过, 送, 通 - so here it signals 'meeting on the road'.

phonetic

解 jiě

to untie; to release

Mainly phonetic - 解 supplies the sound, drifting in this word to xiè (the same series also gives 懈 'slack' and the surname reading xiè for 解 itself). A faint semantic flavor: things 'coming loose' fits an unexpected encounter.