神话
shénhuà · HSK 4
legend
🐉📖 神 (god/spirit) + 话 (speech/talk) = god-talk → myth, legend
神 means god or divine spirit; 话 means speech or story. Together: stories about gods — myths and legends. Same pattern as 童话 (child + talk = fairy tale) and 笑话 (laugh + talk = joke).
神 — 示 (altar/spirit) + 申 (lightning, phonetic)
神 combines 示, depicting an altar associated with rituals and spirits, with 申, originally a pictograph of lightning streaking across the sky. Ancient people saw lightning as a manifestation of divine power, so 申 contributes both sound and the idea of awe-inspiring force. Together they mean 'spirit' or 'god'.
话 — speech radical 讠 (言) + tongue 舌
话 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (simplified from 言, 'speech') gives the meaning, signaling something said, while 舌 ('tongue') hints at the sound and reinforces the speaking sense. The traditional form 話 makes the 言 element explicit; today 话 means 'speech, talk, words.'