按说
àn shuō · HSK 7
ordinarily
📋 按 press/according to + 说 say = according to what people say, normally
Like prefacing a statement with '按 according to common sense' then '说 speaking,' you get 'ordinarily speaking' or 'as things normally go.'
按 — hand radical 扌 + 安 (peace)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 gives the meaning, indicating an action done with the hand, while 安 (ān, peace) supplies the sound. The original sense was to press down with the hand, which extended to meanings like 'to push,' 'to restrain,' and figuratively 'according to.'
说 — speech radical 讠(言) + 兑
说 combines the speech radical 讠(言, 'words') with 兑, which acts as the phonetic component. The character originally meant 'to explain' or 'to speak,' and broadened to mean 'say' or 'talk.' The same graph is also read 'yuè' meaning 'pleased,' a sense later written 悦.