损害
sǔnhài · HSK 5
damage
💥 损 = damage + 害 = harm; both mean injury, doubled for emphasis
损 (sǔn) means to decrease or damage; 害 (hài) means harm or evil. Combined, 损害 stacks two near-synonyms — a common Chinese pattern where pairing similar characters intensifies the meaning into formal 'injury/damage'.
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.'
害 — 宀 roof + 丯 (phonetic) + 口 mouth
Originally an ideograph showing harm spoken under a roof, with 宀 (roof/house) on top, a phonetic element 丯 in the middle, and 口 (mouth) below suggesting harmful speech. Over time it shifted from 'injury caused by words' to the broader senses of 'harm,' 'injure,' and 'fear.'