挑战
tiǎozhàn · HSK 4
a challenge to battle/contest
⚔️ 挑战 = 挑 (pick/provoke) + 战 (war/battle)
挑 means to pick out or provoke, and 战 means war or battle. Together they form the act of picking a fight — a challenge or contest. The 扌 radical in 挑 marks a hand action; 戈 in 战 is an ancient dagger-axe.
挑 — hand radical 扌 + 兆 (zhào, omen)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the hand radical 扌 signals a hand action, while 兆 supplies the sound. The original sense was to lift or carry on a shoulder pole, which extended to picking out, selecting, and stirring up — hence today's meanings 'to choose' (tiāo) and 'to provoke' (tiǎo).