丢脸
diū liǎn · HSK 7
to lose face
😳 diū liǎn = toss + face — you literally throw your face away
The first character 丢 means to lose or toss away, and 脸 means face. So losing face is physically discarding your own face. The sound diū even echoes a dismissive toss — dew flying off a leaf.
丢 — 丿 stroke + 去 (to go away)
丢 is a relatively late character formed by adding a downward stroke 丿 on top of 去 ('to go/leave'). The composition visually suggests something departing or slipping away, reinforcing the meaning 'to lose' or 'to throw away'. It is not an ancient pictograph but a modern semantic compound.
脸 — flesh radical 月 (肉) + 僉 qiān (phonetic)
脸 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 月 is the 'flesh/body' radical (from 肉), signaling a body part. The right side 僉 supplies the sound. Originally 臉 meant the cheeks or area below the eyes; over time it broadened to mean the whole face. 脸 is the simplified form.