失误
shīwù · HSK 5
mistake
❌ 失误 = lose + mistake; shī (lose) + wù (err)
失 means lose/miss, 误 means err/mistake. Together they form shīwù, a slip-up or blunder. The shī sound echoes English 'she' and wù rhymes with 'woo' — a 'she-woo' moment of error.
误 — speech radical 讠 + 吴 wú (phonetic)
误 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (speech) hints at meaning—originally tied to mistaken or misleading words—while 吴 supplies the sound. Over time it broadened from verbal errors to any mistake, delay, or harm caused by error.