热爱
rèài · HSK 3
love ardently
❤️🔥 热 = hot + 爱 = love → burning-hot love, i.e. ardent passion
热 (rè) means hot/heated; 爱 (ài) means love. Together 热爱 literally reads hot-love, the Chinese idiom for loving something ardently or passionately — a hobby, a country, one's work.
热 — 执 zhí (phonetic) + 灬 fire radical
热 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the bottom 灬 (a variant of 火 'fire') gives the meaning of heat, while 执 on top supplies the sound. Originally written 熱, it depicted fire below a phonetic element, and the meaning naturally extended from physical heat to 'hot' weather and 'enthusiastic' feelings.
爱 — 爫 (claw) + 冖 (cover) + 心 (heart) + 夂 (slow walk)
Originally written 㤅, showing a heart 心 with breath above, depicting deep feeling. The modern form adds 夂 (a slow-walking foot) below, suggesting reluctance to leave a loved one. The traditional form 愛 keeps 心 inside; simplified 爱 drops the heart but retains the meaning 'love, cherish'.