硬朗
yìng lǎng · HSK 7
robust
💪 硬朗 = 硬 hard/firm + 朗 bright/clear; firmness that stays clear = robust, hale
Often said of older people who stay strong and healthy. 硬 carries the hard, solid sense and 朗 the clear, bright sense, so together they mean sturdy and in good shape rather than frail.
硬 — stone 石 + 更 (gēng, phonetic)
硬 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 石 'stone' gives the meaning—stones are hard—while the right side 更 originally suggested the pronunciation. From the literal sense of stone-hardness, 硬 extended to mean firm, stiff, or stubborn in both physical and figurative uses.