曬 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

shài HSK4

be in sunshine

Phonosemantic compound. 日 represents the meaning and 麗 represents the sound.

Components

日 Meaning component

rì sun

麗 Sound component

lì beautiful

Change in sound

曬 and 麗 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
曬 *sre-s
麗 *[r]ˤe-s

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sreaH	sre-s	to sun (Hàn time)

《說文》：“曬，也。从日，麗聲。”

Simplified form of 曬. Phonosemantic compound. 日 represents the meaning and 麗 represents the sound.

日 Meaning component

rì sun

xi, xī west

Shorthand for the phonetic component 麗 in the traditional character 曬.