一晃
yī huǎng · HSK 7
in an instant
⚡ 一 = one + 晃 = sway/dazzle; one flicker of light and the moment is already gone
晃 huǎng carries the sense of a quick glint or shimmer, so 一晃 is one brief flash. It marks time slipping by fast or a sight caught for only a split second.
一 — single horizontal stroke
一 is one of the simplest pictographs in Chinese, depicting a single horizontal line to represent the number one. It has retained essentially the same form since oracle bone script over 3,000 years ago. By extension it also means 'first,' 'whole,' or 'same.'
晃 — sun 日 + bright 光 (also phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 日 (sun) gives the meaning of brightness, while 光 (light) supplies both meaning and sound. Originally it depicted dazzling sunlight, hence 'bright, dazzling.' The reading huàng later extended to 'sway, shake,' as if shimmering light wavers.