恐吓
kǒnghè · HSK 7
threaten
🔪 恐 fear + 吓 frighten = lean on someone with fear, i.e. threaten
Both characters carry the 'frighten' sense: 恐 is dread or terror, 吓 is to scare. Stacking the two intensifies it into a deliberate act of menacing someone. The 口 (mouth) on the left of 吓 hints the scaring is often done with words.
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.