推销
tuīxiāo · HSK 4
to market; to sell
📢 推销 = 推 push + 销 sell
推 means push (hand radical 扌 + 隹 bird), 销 means sell or market. Together: push-sell, i.e. peddle or promote a product to customers.
推 — hand radical 扌 + 隹 (short-tailed bird)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the hand radical 扌 gives the meaning 'to push' or act with the hand, while 隹 supplies the sound (originally close to 'tui'). The core sense has stayed remarkably stable, expanding from physical pushing to figurative uses like 'recommend' or 'infer'.
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.'