促销
cùxiāo · HSK 4
to promote sales
🛒🏷️ 促 = urge + 销 = sell; urging a sale = promotion
促 means urge or prompt; 销 means sell or market. Together 促销 literally reads urge-sell, the standard term for a sales promotion or marketing push to move merchandise.
销 — metal radical 钅 + 肖 xiāo (phonetic)
销 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The metal radical 钅 (金) signals a meaning related to metal, while 肖 supplies the sound xiāo. It originally meant to melt or smelt metal, then extended figuratively to 'dissolve away,' and later to modern senses like 'sell' (move goods away) and 'cancel/expend.'