笑

Étymologie et composants

The Chinese character 笑 (xiào) for "laugh" is composed of two parts: the radical 讠 (yán), which indicates that the character is related to speech, and the phonetic component 肖 (xiào), which provides a hint to its pronunciation. The radical 讠 is a pictograph of a person speaking, while the phonetic component 肖 is a pictograph of a person with a big mouth, indicating laughter. Together, these two components form the character 笑, which conveys the meaning of "laugh". It's worth noting that the phonetic component 肖 also carries the meaning of "similar" or "resemble", adding another layer of nuance to the character 笑.