嚃
Character Story & Explanation
嚃 is virtually absent from modern spoken Mandarin and does not appear in any HSK level (1–6) or the 3,500 most common characters. It occurs in pre-20th-century texts—such as the Ming Dynasty novel Jin Ping Mei—where it describes hurried swallowing during emotional scenes. A documented usage appears in Chapter 74, describing a servant '嚃尽残酒' (tà jìn cán jiǔ): 'gulped down the dregs of wine', conveying desperation and loss of restraint.
The character is a phono-semantic compound: 口 (kǒu, 'mouth') as semantic radical, and 塔 (tǎ) as phonetic component. While 塔 originally meant 'stupa' (borrowed from Sanskrit stūpa), its sound was repurposed here for phonetic value—no pictographic origin exists. Today, Chinese readers encounter 嚃 almost exclusively in annotated classical editions or academic contexts—not daily life.
The character 嚃 (tà) is a rare, literary verb meaning 'to drink' or 'to swallow'—often with connotations of hurried, deep, or even desperate consumption. Unlike common verbs like 喝 (hē) or 吞 (tūn), 嚃 appears primarily in classical texts, poetic diction, or fixed literary expressions. Its usage evokes visceral imagery: the throat contracting, liquid rushing down, or exhaustion giving way to urgent intake.
Historically, 嚃 belongs to a small group of onomatopoeic or phonosemantic characters formed by combining 口 (mouth radical) with 塔 (tǎ, a phonetic component suggesting sound resonance). Though not in modern vernacular speech, it survives in idioms and historical prose where rhythm and tone matter more than colloquial clarity—e.g., describing a weary traveler gulping water after crossing the Gobi.
This character exemplifies how Chinese retains lexical depth through literary strata: while learners may never use 嚃 conversationally, recognizing it enriches reading of Tang poetry, Ming novels, or official Qing-era memorials. Its rarity makes it a marker of advanced textual literacy—not HSK vocabulary, but part of the 'deep reading' toolkit for scholars and serious students of classical Chinese.
Example Sentences
Common Compounds
Similar Characters — Don't Mix These Up
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