說
부수: 言
획수: 14획
說 has the meanings ‘explain’, ‘speak’ and ‘persuade’.
說 = 言 + 兌
X = semantic + semantic/phonetic
• 言 depicts speech organs and represents the meaning ‘speech’.
• 兌 is suggested to depict a person with air coming out of their mouth. However, it remains disputed (explained below).
說 conveys the meaning ‘to exchange ideas through language’. The original meaning was ‘to explain’ and this progressed to ‘theory’ and ‘to speak’.
Evolution:
說 = ’to explain’ ➔ ’to speak’
說 = ’to explain’ ➔ ’theory/doctrine’
說 = ’to explain’ ➔ ’to influence’
言 = 
+ 口
• 
is a distortion of the original form (see below).
• 口 depicts a mouth.
言 was originally 舌 which depicts a tongue. From this comes the meaning ‘speech’.
兌 = 八 + 兄
• 八 is suggested to depict air coming out (of a mouth) and represents the meaning ‘to be happy’.
• 兄 depicts a person with their mouth open.
Some scholars take 兌 to be ‘shaman’ representing ‘exchanging dialogue between the gods and humans’. Others see 兌 as meaning ‘to disperse ideas’.
兄 = 口 + 儿
• 口 depicts a mouth — which is enlarged for clarity.
• 儿 depicts the legs of a person and simply means ‘person’.
Mnemonic
While some scholars do not see 兌 as ‘shaman’, it makes a useful mnemonic. Look at this historical form and imagine 兌 as a [무당 (shaman)] with 八 depicting the fans in both hands. The 무당 conveys messages 言 between humans and spirits and explains the spiritual world.
Vocab
| 說明 | 설명 | explanation; account |
| 解說 | 해설 | explanation; commentary |
| 假說 | 가설 | hypothesis |
| 逆說 | 역설 | opposing view; paradox |
| 定說 | 정설 | established theory; mainstream theory |
| 遊說 | 유세 | canvass; campaign |
| 演說 | 연설 | public speech |
| 辱說 | 욕설 | curse; abuse; insult |
| 傳說 | 전설 | legend |
| 社說 | 사설 | editorial; column |
| 小說 | 소설 | novel |
| 說得力 | 설득력 | persuasive power |
Additional notes
Although 說 has three readings (설,세 and 열), there aren’t any common words that use 세 and practically no modern words which use 열.
Other resources
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CJKV
CJKV Dict
Wikitionary
Unihan Database 說(설|U+8AAA)
Unihan Database 說(세|U+F96F)
Unihan Database 說(열|U+F9A1)
Korean
Chinese
說(U+8AAA)
Written Chinese
Arch Chinese
ZDic
CC-Canto
Chinese Text Project
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (etymology)
Chinese Boost
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説(U+8AAC)
Takoboto
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JLearn.net
Sakura
The Kanji Map
Sentence Search
Immersion Kit
Vietnamese
Bibliography
Affiliate links help support uK.
— Grant, B.K. (1982). A Guide To Korean Characters: Reading and Writing Hangul and Hanja, [s.v. 1424]. Seoul: Hollym.
— Henshall, K.G. (1998). A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters, [s.v. 524]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.
— Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters, [s.v. 說, 言, 口, 兌, 八, 兄, 儿].
— Seely, C., Henshall, K.G., & Fan, J. (2016). The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji: Remembering and Understanding the 2,136 Standard Japanese Characters, [s.v. 553]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.