但愿
dànyuàn · HSK 7
wish
🌠🙏 dan = but/only + yuan = wish: if only this one wish
但 means but or only, 愿 means wish or desire. Together they form a heartfelt if only — a single earnest wish. Sounds like done-you-en, as if saying done hoping, you enter my wish.
但 — person radical 亻 + dawn 旦
A semantic-phonetic compound: 亻 (person) gives the meaning side and 旦 (dawn) supplies the sound. Originally it depicted a person baring the shoulder, an old sense preserved in 袒. Over time 但 was borrowed to write the function word meaning 'only' and later 'but'.
愿 — 原 (source) + 心 (heart)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The heart radical 心 carries the meaning of inner feeling or wish, while 原 (yuán, 'source/plain') supplies the sound. Together they depict a wish welling up from the heart, giving the senses 'to wish, to be willing'.