亲眼
qīnyǎn · HSK 6
eye
👁️ 亲 (close/personal) + 眼 (eye) = your own close-up eye on it
亲 means intimate or personal, 眼 means eye. Together they literally say your personal eye — witnessing something firsthand, not through hearsay or a screen.
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.
眼 — eye radical 目 + 艮 (phonetic)
眼 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 目 means 'eye' and gives the meaning, while 艮 on the right supplies the sound. Originally referring to the eyeball, it broadened over time to mean 'eye' generally and, by extension, 'a hole' or 'key point'.