偏远

piānyuǎn · HSK 7

remote

🏔️ 偏 = off to one side + 远 = far; far off to the side = remote, faraway

偏 — person radical 亻 + 扁 (flat/biǎn)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 亻 (person) gives the meaning side, while 扁 supplies the sound. Originally suggesting a person standing off to one side, it came to mean 'slanted,' 'inclined,' or 'one-sided,' and by extension 'biased' or 'partial.'

远 — 辶 (walk) + 袁 (phonetic)
远 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The 辶 radical (a walking/movement element) carries the meaning of going or distance, while 袁 (yuán) provides the sound. The traditional form 遠 shows this structure clearly; together they convey 'far' — a place reached by long travel.

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