信用
xìnyòng · HSK 6
trustingness
🤝 信 trust + 用 use = trustworthiness you can put to use
Someone whose trust you can actually use — that is, rely on in practice. 信 carries the sense of believing or keeping ones word, and 用 means to use or apply. Together they form credit, credibility, the kind of honour that functions in the real world.
信 — person 亻 + speech 言
信 combines 亻(person) with 言(speech), depicting a person standing by their words. The original sense is 'truthfulness' or 'sincerity'—what a person says can be trusted. From this it extended to 'believe,' 'trust,' and later 'message' or 'letter,' since a letter carries one's word.
用 — pictograph of a bucket or wooden pail
用 originally depicted a bucket or container, possibly a sacrificial vessel made of wood. Over time it was borrowed to mean 'to use' or 'employ,' losing its concrete object sense. The modern meaning 'use' has been standard since early classical Chinese.