TSUMUGU · C1 (est.) · 字
蔑
蔑 ＝ 苜 ＋ 戍
ㄇㄧㄝˋ · miè
verb — to despise, slight; to slander
字源 FORM — what the parts do
苜義tired, dim eyes (the 艹 over 目)
戍義a guard standing watch
說文 reads it as dim, exhausted eyes (苜, the 艹 over a 目) joined to a standing guard (戍) — eyes worn out from the long watch, seeing nothing worth seeing. From that emptied gaze: to look down on, to slight. The two parts only mean; nothing here carries a sound.
故事 STORY — a scene to remember it by
站了一夜崗（戍），眼睛（苜）熬得發直——看誰都懶得看一眼。
A whole night on watch (戍); the eyes (苜) glaze over — too spent to give anything a second look.
字源記憶法
意 · Meanings
(本義)勞目無精— eyes dim with exhaustion
→蔑視— to despise, look down on常用
⇒誣蔑— to slander
(本義) original meaning · → ⇒ each arrow = one more step of extension
關 · Related
苜mùthe worn eyes up top — 艹 hiding the 目 beneath, where the dim-gaze sense lives
演 · Evolution
下半有兩種讀法——說文的戍（守兵），與更古的伐（攻打）。兩說都讓蔑成為只表意、無聲符的字。
The bottom element is read two ways — 說文's 戍 (a guard) against an older 伐 (to strike). Both leave 蔑 a meaning-only graph with no sound donor.