新人
xīnrén · HSK 6
newlywed
💍 new + person = a brand-new person in your life, your newlywed
新 means new, 人 means person. Together they literally say new person — someone who just entered your family through marriage. The freshness of 新 captures that just-married glow.
新 — 立 stand + 木 tree + 斤 axe
Originally depicted cutting fresh wood with an axe (斤) from a tree (木), with 辛/立 as the phonetic component. The original meaning of 'firewood' was later written as 薪, while 新 took on the extended sense of 'new' or 'fresh'.
人 — pictograph of a standing person
人 is a pictograph showing a person viewed from the side, with two strokes representing the legs and torso of a standing human. In oracle bone script it clearly depicted a figure leaning slightly forward. The meaning has remained 'person' or 'human' throughout its history.