刁难
diāo nàn · HSK 7
to deliberately make things difficult
🚧😤 diāo nàn sounds like 'dow nan' — downing someone with nonstop obstacles
The character 刁 means cunning or tricky, and 难 means difficult. Together they describe someone craftily piling on obstacles to make life hard for another person — deliberate, calculated hassle.
难 — 又 (right hand) + 隹 (short-tailed bird)
Originally written with 堇 (clay) plus 隹 (bird), 難 depicted a rare bird and was borrowed to mean 'difficult.' The modern simplified form replaces the left side with 又 (hand). The phonetic role of the original left component gave the reading nán.