煽 (shān) — to fan (a fire); to stir up; (figurative) to incite, to instigate, to agitate; (colloquial) to chat idly, to shoot the breeze
Definition
煽 covers three distinct senses: literally fanning a fire, figuratively inciting (as in 煽动), and colloquially chatting idly. Pick the sense from context — 煽动 always means 'incite', while bare 煽 on its own is usually the chat sense.
verb
to fan (a fire)to stir up(figurative) to inciteto instigateto agitate(colloquial) to chat idlyto shoot the breeze
Examples
- 煽，。Tā shān le jǐ xià huǒ, huǒ jiù wàng le.He fanned the fire a few times and it blazed up.
- 。Yǒu rén gù yì shān dòng qún zhòng nào shì.Someone deliberately incited the crowd to make trouble.
- 煽，。Tā men liǎ zài nà biān shān ne, bié dǎ rǎo tā men.Those two are chatting over there—don't disturb them.
Origin
Sound + meaning六书liùshū
形声xíngshēngMost characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.
煽 has 火 on the left, showing a connection to fire, and 扇 on the right, which gives the sound.
Appears in
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