歃
shà

smear one's mouth with blood of a victim when taking an oath

Components

臿
臿 Sound component
chā to separate the grain from the husk
欠
欠 Meaning component
qiàn, qian yawn, deficient

breathe

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsrɛp[s](ˤ)r[o]psmear mouth with victim"s blood
srjep[s]r[o]psmear mouth with blood
Zhengzhangsreːb
sreb

說文解字

歠也。从欠臿聲。《春秋傳》曰:“歃而忘。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica