猜谜
cāimèi · HSK 7
Guess
🤔❓ cāimèi sounds like try me — what every riddle dares you to do
猜 means guess, 谜 means riddle. Together they mean guessing riddles. A puzzle taunts you: try me! That echo locks in the sound and the challenge.
猜 — dog radical 犭 + 青 (qīng)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The dog radical 犭 hints at the original sense of suspicion or wariness, like a dog sizing up a stranger, while 青 (qīng) supplies the sound (shifted to cāi). Over time the meaning broadened from 'suspect' to today's main sense, 'to guess.'
谜 — speech radical 讠 + 迷 mí (lost/confused)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The speech radical 讠 signals meaning related to words, while 迷 supplies the sound mí and the sense of being lost or puzzled. Together they form 谜, 'riddle' — words designed to bewilder the listener.