吊死 (diào sǐ) — to hang (someone) to death (transitive); to die by hanging; to commit suicide by hanging (intransitive)

Definition

吊死 means to kill by hanging (someone else) or to die by hanging (oneself). The raw 'present offerings to the deceased' gloss is a misread of 吊 'to mourn' — the verb here is the homograph meaning 'to suspend/hang'.

verb
to hang (someone) to death (transitive)to die by hangingto commit suicide by hanging (intransitive)

Examples

  • 吊死。
    Gǔ dài yǒu xiē fàn rén bèi diào sǐ zài chéng mén wài.
    In ancient times, some criminals were hanged outside the city gate.
  • 吊死。
    Tīng shuō tā zài yù zhōng diào sǐ le.
    It is said he hanged himself in prison.
  • 吊死。
    Zhè ge bào jūn céng xià lìng diào sǐ le xǔ duō wú gū bǎi xìng.
    This tyrant once ordered many innocent people to be hanged.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
补充bǔchōngVerb + complement

An action followed by its result or direction.

吊diàohang
死sǐdie

The action 吊 hang leads to the outcome 死 die, giving hang to death.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 吊 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
歹歹dǎi
Sound part声符shēngfú
尸
尸shī死sǐ
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

死 is built from 歹 and 尸: 歹 is the part tied to the meaning, and 尸 gives the sound.

Open 死 →

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