About
The character "谗", meaning to slander, derives from its traditional form "讒", where the semantic component "言" (speech) categorizes it within the domain of verbal expression, and the component "毚" provides phonetic guidance while also implying cunning or deceit. In the simplified form "谗", the speech radical is abbreviated to "讠", and the right component is a graphically reduced version of "毚". The character's meaning has remained centered on malicious or false accusation across its usage history.
Etymology Hide
