About
The simplified character 诋 derives from the traditional 詆, a phono-semantic compound. The left side, 讠, is the simplified form of the speech radical 言 and signals the semantic field of speech or communication. The right side, 氐, indicates the pronunciation dǐ. The character means to slander or defame, maliciously attacking someone's reputation through spoken or written words. In its earlier usage, 氐 referred to an ancient ethnic group or a foundation, but here it serves only as a phonetic marker, with no bearing on the meaning. The simplification replaced the full 言 radical with 讠, while the phonetic component 氐 remained the same.
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