咋舌
zé​shé

speechless

咋 zǎ question-forming particle

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 乍 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
乍
乍 Sound component
zhà, zuò suddenly

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔsraːɡs
zraːɡ
ʔsreːɡ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

舌 shé tongue

Depicts a tongue sticking out of a mouth.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a tongue.

口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 6 verified)

适恬蛞鸹栝鴰

Simplified (4)

敌乱辞讠

Meaning (1 of 4 verified)

甜舔舐聒

Iconic (3)

言讠訁

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

憩

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartzyetmə.lat tongue

說文解字

《說文》：“舌，在口所以言也，別味也。从千，从口，千亦聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.145
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)