杀价 (shā jià) — to bargain, to haggle (over a price)

Definition

杀价 (shā jià) is the active, pushy 'haggle' — the buyer pushes the price down hard. Unlike 砍价, it stresses an aggressive squeeze rather than casual back-and-forth.

verb
to bargainto haggle (over a price)

Examples

  • ，杀价。
    Zài tiào zao shì chǎng shàng, gù kè kě yǐ gēn tān zhǔ shā jià.
    At flea markets, customers can bargain with the vendors.
  • ，。
    Tā gēn lǎo bǎn shā le yí gè xiǎo shí de jià, zuì hòu pián yi le wǔ shí kuài.
    She haggled with the boss for an hour and finally got fifty yuan off.
  • ，杀价。
    Zhè jiàn yī fu biāo jià tài gāo, nǐ dé shǐ jìn r shā jià.
    This piece of clothing is priced too high — you have to bargain hard.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

杀shākill
价jiàprice

杀 contributes kill and 价 contributes price, so the image is killing the price down.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 殺; 杀 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 殺 comes from an old drawing of a boar impaled in the head, with 人 and 又 added to show a person doing the killing; the simplified 杀 is a later abbreviation.

Open 杀 →

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
人人rén
Sound part声符shēngfú
介
介jiè价jiè
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

价 pairs 人 (person) with 介, which gives the sound.

Open 价 →

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