艰难
jiānnán · HSK 5
difficult
⛰️ 艰 (difficult) + 难 (hard) — two near-synonyms stacked for emphasis
艰难 doubles up 艰 and 难, both meaning difficult/hard. Chinese often pairs near-synonyms to form stronger disyllabic words. 难 (nán) is the everyday hard; 艰 (jiān) adds a weightier, more arduous tone.
难 — 又 (right hand) + 隹 (short-tailed bird)
Originally written with 堇 (clay) plus 隹 (bird), 難 depicted a rare bird and was borrowed to mean 'difficult.' The modern simplified form replaces the left side with 又 (hand). The phonetic role of the original left component gave the reading nán.