About
The character "赊", meaning to buy or sell on credit, originates from its traditional form "賒", a phono-semantic compound combining the radical "貝" for wealth or currency with the phonetic component "佘". This structure has historically linked the character to financial concepts of debt and deferred payment, and its simplified form "赊" retains the phonetic element while replacing "貝" with the simplified variant "贝". The character's usage has consistently revolved around transactions involving delayed settlement, from early commercial texts to modern applications.
Etymology Hide
