吓
xià · HSK 5
to scare; to intimidate
😱 吓 = 口 (mouth) + 下 (down/below); a mouth shouting 'down!' to frighten
The mouth radical 口 plus 下 (xià, down) gives 吓 (xià, to frighten). Mnemonic: a shouted 'get down!' startles someone. The shared sound xià with 下 also makes the phonetic link easy to recall.
吓 — mouth 口 + 赫 (hè, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 口 (mouth) signals a vocal/exclamatory meaning, while 赫 supplies the sound. Originally written as 嚇, it conveyed shouting to startle or frighten someone, later simplified to 吓. The reading xià means 'to scare,' while hè is used in exclamations.