也许
yěxǔ · HSK 2
perhaps
也 (also) + 许 (allow) = 'also allowed' → maybe, perhaps
也 means 'also' and 许 means 'to permit/allow'. Together 'also-permitted' softens a claim into possibility — what is also allowed to be true is what might be true. Common hedge word like English 'maybe'.
也 — single-component pictograph
也 originated as a pictograph, traditionally interpreted as depicting a snake or a woman's basin/vessel — scholars debate the exact image. Its original concrete meaning was lost early, and by the classical period it was borrowed almost exclusively as a grammatical particle marking assertion or emphasis. In modern Chinese it means 'also' or 'too'.
许 — speech radical 讠 (言) + 午 (noon/phonetic)
许 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The 讠 (speech) radical signals a meaning tied to spoken acts, while 午 supplies the sound. Its core senses — to permit, promise, or praise — all stem from things granted through words.