賣

Ideogrammatic compound combines 出 (“to go out”) with 買 (“to buy”), literally meaning “to bring goods out for sale.”

The upper 出 component was gradually simplified into a 士-like form, producing the modern shape of 賣.

Phonetically and semantically, 賣 is the antonym of 買.

Both share the same initial and final but differ in tone:

買 - “to buy” (rising tone),

賣 - “to sell” (falling tone).

Historical-phonology research traces this contrast to an ancient suffix -s marking outward or causative direction, which shifted the tone to departing (去聲).

Thus 賣 originally meant “to cause buying outward → to sell.”

Although several later characters (e.g., 讀 ‘to read’, 續 ‘to continue’) appear to use 賣 as a phonetic, they actually derive from the distinct but visually similar form 𧶠 (“to barter”).

賣買 (매매) — the act of buying and selling (trade)

賣物 (매물) — object for sale; goods to be sold

販賣 (판매) — sale; to sell (more commonly used in modern Korean)

賣出 (매출) — turnover; amount sold

賣店 (매점) — store/retail shop (though the Hanja form is less used in practice)

賣場 (매장) — store, shop floor

Note: In daily Korean usage, the pure Hanja “賣” may appear primarily in formal or academic contexts, while the native verb “팔다” is used in everyday speech.

As the counterpart to buy (買), 賣 stands for human exchange and material circulation, a fundamental act of social economy.

In moral and literary usage, however, it may extend metaphorically to betrayal or corruption, as in 出賣 (“to sell out,” “to betray”).

Linguistically, 賣 illustrates the evolution from semantic directionality (“outward action”) to tonal morphology (tone-based opposition in meaning) within Sinitic languages — a paradigmatic case in historical Chinese linguistics.