盼
pàn · HSK 7
hope/long for
👀 目 eye + 分 divide: eyes splitting the horizon, watching and longing for what you hope comes
盼 pàn combines 目 (eye) with 分 (divide/split, lending the sound). The eye component points to the core sense: to look toward something and long for it, to expect its arrival.
盼 — eye 目 + divide 分 (phonetic)
盼 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 目 (eye) gives the meaning and 分 supplies the sound. It originally described eyes with a clear contrast between black and white, then shifted to mean looking eagerly into the distance, and now commonly means to hope for or long for something.