About
The character 谪 (traditional form 謫) originally meant to reprimand or blame for a fault. It is a phono-semantic compound: the left-side radical 讠 (言 in traditional form) signifies speech, while the right-side component 啇 provides the phonetic element. In historical bureaucratic usage, this sense of verbal condemnation evolved into a specific punitive action, the demotion and forced exile of a government official to a remote area as a result of falling out of imperial favor or committing an administrative error.
Etymology Hide
