Origin

This character combines the speech radical 言 on the left, which marks that this kanji deals with words and communication, with the component 兪 on the right that serves as a sound hint for pronunciation. The right side doesn't contribute a meaning but rather tells you roughly how the character sounds. Together, the left and right parts create a character meaning to speak to someone in order to persuade or warn them—the act of using words to guide someone's thinking or behavior. The speech radical makes clear this is fundamentally about verbal communication, while the sound component anchors the specific pronunciation.