About
The character 讣, traditional form 訃, functions as both a noun for an obituary and a verb meaning to formally announce a death. It is a phono-semantic compound: the left-side speech radical 讠 (from 言) defines its semantic scope within communication and formal announcements, while the right-side component 卜 provides the phonetic value "bù" or "fù". This structure is most clearly seen in the common compound 讣告 (fùgào), the formal term for a published obituary notice. The character thus directly links the act of speaking or writing with the social necessity of conveying news of a death.