言

Ideogram (指事): 言 was created by adding a mark to 舌 to indicate movement of the tongue. This indicates speech where 舌 is a mouth (口) with a tongue sticking out.

言、甲骨文、Oracle bone script

Shuowen erroneously analyzes the glyph as a phono-semantic compound (形聲): phonetic 䇂 + semantic 口 (“mouth”).

Etymology

According to Schuessler (2007: 74) this word is derived from 語 (OC *ŋaʔ, “to speak”) + -n nominal suffix.

In Japanese and Korean (printed forms), the 亠 component on top is written 二 (as found in the Kangxi dictionary: 康煕部首＃149、⾔、康熙：第1146頁，字符1). In traditional/simplified Chinese and Vietnamese, the top component is written 丶. In written Japanese, the top component may be written either 一, 丶 or 丨 (small vertical stroke).

《道德經》第81章

信言不美，美言不信。

善者不辯，辯者不善。

知者不博，博者不知。

聖人不積，既以為人己愈有，既以與人己愈多。

天之道，利而不害；聖人之道，為而不爭。

81 ― James Legge (The manifestation of simplicity)

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.

Those who are skilled (in the Dao) do not dispute (about it); the disputatious are not skilled in it.

Those who know (the Dao) are not extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it.

The sage does not accumulate (for himself).

The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own;

the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself.

With all the sharpness of the Way of Heaven, it injures not;

with all the doing in the way of the sage he does not strive.

Dao De Jing Chapter 81 ― Herman Ould

Truth has no need for fine words;

Fine words may not be true words.

The man of Tao does not try to convince by argument:

He who argues is not a man of Tao.

Wisdom does not consist in knowing everything;

The know-alls do not know the Tao.

The sage does not hoard. The more he spends himself for others, the more he enriches himself.

The more he fives, the more he gains.

For the Tao of Heaven penetrates all things but harms none.

This, too, is the Tao of the Sage, who acts without contending.

81― Arthur Waley

True words are not fine-sounding;

Fine-sounding words are not true.

The good man does not prove by argument;

Then he who proves by argument is not good.

True wisdom is different from much learning;

Much learning means little wisdom.

The Sage has no need to hoard;

When his own last scrap has been used up on behalf of others,

Lo, he has more than before!

When his own last scrap has been used up in giving to others,

Lo, his stock is even greater than before!

For heaven's way is to sharpen without cutting,

And Sage's way is to act without striving.