抢眼
qiǎng yǎn · HSK 7
eye-catching
👀 抢 grab + 眼 eye = something that grabs your eyes = eye-catching
抢 (qiǎng) means to grab or snatch; 眼 (yǎn) means eye. A thing so striking it grabs the eyes off everyone nearby. The 抢-eye also shows up in 抢手 (in hot demand, grabbed up fast).
抢 — hand radical 扌 + 仓 cāng (granary)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the hand radical 扌 signals an action done with hands, while 仓 (granary) supplies the sound, originally close to qiāng/qiǎng. The early sense was to snatch or grab by force, which extended to 'rush, scramble for, vie for' in modern usage.
眼 — eye radical 目 + 艮 (phonetic)
眼 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 目 means 'eye' and gives the meaning, while 艮 on the right supplies the sound. Originally referring to the eyeball, it broadened over time to mean 'eye' generally and, by extension, 'a hole' or 'key point'.