嘗

A phono-semantic compound:

旨 — meaning “flavor; taste; intent” (semantic component)

尚 — “still; esteem; elevate” (phonetic component)

The component 旨 originally depicted food being lifted with a spoon (匕) to the mouth (口), carrying the meanings taste and flavor in addition to purpose or intent.

Combined with the phonetic 尚, the character came to mean “to taste”, and by extension “to experience.”

Because 旨 is not an independent radical, the character was classified under 口 (mouth) to better reflect its semantic core, even though 尚 itself belongs to the 小 (small) radical category.

시식하다 (試嘗하다) — to taste; to sample

미상유(未嘗有) — never before existed (literary/classical)

The shift from physical tasting to abstract experience is a classic example of semantic extension in Classical Chinese.

The adverbial use of 嘗 is especially frequent in historical texts, biographies, and philosophical works.

The character bridges sensory experience and life experience, a connection deeply embedded in East Asian thought.

Related characters:

味 — flavor; taste

旨 — flavor; purpose

嚐 — to taste (explicit form)

試 — to test; to try

經 — to experience; to pass through

In ancient China, 嘗 also referred to a state ritual performed in autumn:

嘗祭 (상제) — an ancestral ceremony in which newly harvested grain was offered to ancestors or temple spirits.

This reflects the original concrete sense of “tasting the new harvest”, both literally and ritually.

Grammatical usage in Classical Chinese:

As a verb

嘗其味 — “to taste its flavor”

嘗苦 — “to experience hardship”

As an adverb

嘗聞之 — “I have once heard of it”

未嘗見也 — “I have never seen it”

In this adverbial sense, 嘗 often indicates past experience, similar to "ever" or "once" in English.

嚐 (U+5690) — explicitly emphasizes the tasting meaning by adding an extra 口 (mouth). Used in Traditional Chinese, especially in Taiwan.

Treated as a distinct standard character from 嘗 by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan.

甞 — an older variant using 甘 (sweet) instead of 旨, highlighting flavor.