损
sǔn · HSK 7
to damage
📉 损 = hand 扌 + 员 (member); a hand taking members away, so the count drops
The hand radical 扌 on the left signals a physical action, and 员 means a member or unit of a count. Together they point to a hand reducing the number of something, hence to decrease, lose, or damage. Sound cue: sǔn lands close to soon, as in your stock soon dropped.
损 — hand 扌 + 员 (yuán, phonetic)
损 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 carries the meaning of an action done by hand, while 员 supplies the sound. Originally it referred to reducing or diminishing something by hand, which broadened to the modern senses of 'damage,' 'loss,' and 'harm.'