杀害
shāhài · HSK 7
to murder
🔪 杀 kill + 害 harm = to murder; 害 also means injure, so it is killing-by-harm
杀 (shā) means kill or slaughter; 害 (hài) means harm or injure. Together 杀害 is the deliberate killing of a person. The shared -ā/-ài vowel pairing makes shāhài easy to chain once you know 杀.
杀 — 刂 knife radical + 朩 phonetic
杀 (shā) means 'to kill.' The traditional form 殺 shows a hand wielding a weapon (殳) beside a phonetic element. The simplified form keeps a reduced phonetic 朩 over 朩, with the knife radical 刂 originally implied through the weapon component, signaling violent action.
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.'