刺す
さす · sasu · JLPT N3 · verb-godan
to sting
🐝🦟 刺 = thorn 朿 + blade 刂, two sharp points; sasu sounds like a hiss: sss
The left part 朿 is an old character for a thorn. The right part 刂 is the knife radical. A thorn plus a blade means piercing. 刺す covers bee stings, mosquito bites and pin pricks. Its noun 刺身 (sashimi) means pierced flesh.
刺 — thorn 朿 (phonetic) + knife 刂 (meaning)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The knife radical 刂 carries the meaning of cutting or piercing, while 朿 (a thorn) supplies both the sound and reinforces the idea of something sharp. Original sense was 'to stab' or 'pierce', later extended to 'thorn', 'sting', and figuratively 'to criticize sharply'.