着急
zhāojí · HSK 4
feel anxious
😰 着 = touch/get + 急 = urgent; getting hit by urgency = anxious
着 means to come into contact with or get caught by something; 急 means urgent or hurried. Together: caught up in urgency, i.e. worried or anxious. The 急 character itself has 心 (heart) at the bottom — an urgent heart.
着 — sheep 羊 (top) + eye 目 (bottom)
着 originated as a variant of 著, which depicted plants emerging visibly above ground (grass radical 艹 over 者). Over time 着 split off to carry meanings like 'attach,' 'wear,' or a verb suffix marking ongoing action (zhe), while 著 kept senses like 'manifest' or 'author.'
急 — heart radical 心 + 及 (reach)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the heart radical 心 supplies the meaning (an emotional state) while 及 ('to reach, catch up') gives the sound. Originally it depicted a racing, anxious heart — hence the modern senses 'urgent,' 'hurried,' and 'impatient.'