感人
gǎn rén · HSK 6
touching
💖 感 = feel + 人 = person; something that makes people feel
感 (feel/sense) plus 人 (person) literally reads as feeling-person — a story or moment that moves people emotionally. English touching works the same way: not physical contact, but reaching someone's heart.
感 — heart 心 + 咸 (xián, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The heart radical 心 at the bottom carries the meaning of feeling or emotion, while 咸 supplies the sound. Together 感 conveys being moved in the heart, hence 'to feel,' 'sense,' or 'be affected by' something.
人 — pictograph of a standing person
人 is a pictograph showing a person viewed from the side, with two strokes representing the legs and torso of a standing human. In oracle bone script it clearly depicted a figure leaning slightly forward. The meaning has remained 'person' or 'human' throughout its history.