感激
gǎnjī · HSK 7
feel grateful/indebted
🙏 感 = feel + 激 = stirred/roused; feel deeply moved → grateful
感 means to feel (heart 心 sensing influence); 激 means roused or stirred up like agitated water (氵). Together: heart stirred by kindness, i.e. moved with gratitude.
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.