传言
chuán yán · HSK 6
rumor
💬 传 = pass/transmit + 言 = speech; passed-along talk = rumor
传 means to pass on or transmit, and 言 means speech or words. Together, 传言 literally describes speech that gets passed from person to person — exactly what a rumor or hearsay is.
传 — person radical 亻 + 专 (zhuān)
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 亻 (person) gives the meaning 'to pass on' between people, while 専/专 supplied the sound. Early uses referred to relay stations and messengers carrying word from place to place, which broadened to today's senses of transmitting, spreading, and handing down (as in tradition or biography).