亲朋好友
qīn péng hǎo yoǔ · HSK 7
friends and family
👪 亲 relatives + 朋 friends + 好 good + 友 friend = your whole circle of kin and pals
Four-character set phrase built from two pairs: 亲朋 (relatives and friends) plus 好友 (good friends). Stacking near-synonyms is a common Chinese way to mean everyone close to you, hence kith and kin.
亲 — 立 (stand) + 木 (tree); simplified from 親
The traditional form 親 combined 亲 (phonetic, depicting a hazelnut tree) with 見 (see), suggesting closeness through frequent seeing of family. In simplified Chinese, 見 was dropped, leaving 亲. It now means 'parent,' 'intimate,' or 'in person,' and as qìng denotes in-laws.
好 — woman 女 + child 子
好 is an associative compound showing a woman 女 beside a child 子, depicting a mother with her baby. From this image of maternal affection it came to mean 'good, fine, pleasing.' The reading hǎo means 'good'; read hào it means 'to like.'