新闻
xīnwén · HSK 2
news
📰 新闻 = new + heard/news (新 new + 闻 to hear)
Compound decomposition: 新 (xīn) means new, and 闻 (wén) originally meant to hear and now also means news. Together: newly heard things = news. The character 闻 shows 耳 (ear) inside 门 (gate).
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'.
闻 — gate 門 (phonetic) + ear 耳
Originally a pictograph of a person cupping a hand to the ear to listen, later restructured as a semantic-phonetic compound: 耳 (ear) gives the meaning and 門 (gate) supplies the sound. The core sense 'to hear' extended to 'news' and 'to smell', since both involve perceiving something from a distance.