说服
shuìfú · HSK 4
persuade
🗣️ 说 (speak) + 服 (submit/yield) = talk someone into yielding
说 means speak/talk; 服 means to submit or be convinced. Together: speaking until the other person yields — to persuade. Note the special reading shuì (not shuō) used specifically for this persuasion sense.
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.
服 — 月 (moon/flesh) + 𠬝 (kneeling figure with hand)
Originally depicted a hand subduing a kneeling person beside a boat (later simplified to 月), suggesting submission or service. The meaning extended from 'submit/serve' to 'clothing' (what one wears in service) and 'to take' as in medicine. The phonetic role of 𠬝 helps fix the reading fú.