伤脑筋
shāng nǎo jīn · HSK 7
to be a real headache
🤕🧠 伤 (injure) + 脑筋 (brains) = to injure your brains over a problem — a real headache
伤 — person radical 亻 + 㿝 (phonetic)
伤 is the simplified form of 傷. It combines the person radical 亻, indicating a human being affected, with a phonetic component derived from 昜. The original sense was a wound or injury to a person, which extended to mean 'to hurt,' 'injury,' and figuratively 'to grieve' or 'sorrow.'
筋 — bamboo 竹 + flesh 月(肉) + strength 力
A semantic compound: 月 (flesh) shows it relates to the body, 力 (strength) hints at muscular force, and 竹 (bamboo) suggests fibers like bamboo strands. Together they depict the sinews or tendons that give the body its strength.