损伤
sǔn shāng · HSK 7
to harm
🩹 损伤 = 损 (reduce/lose) + 伤 (wound) — a wound that diminishes you
Both halves carry the sense of harm: 损 is loss or reduction, 伤 is a wound or injury. Stacked together they mean damage or impairment, often to a body, machine, or reputation.
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.'
伤 — person radical 亻 + 㿝 (phonetic)
伤 is the simplified form of 傷. It combines the person radical 亻, indicating a human being affected, with a phonetic component derived from 昜. The original sense was a wound or injury to a person, which extended to mean 'to hurt,' 'injury,' and figuratively 'to grieve' or 'sorrow.'