诚信
chéng xìn · HSK 4
honest
🤝 诚信 = 诚 (sincere) + 信 (trust) — sincerity plus trustworthiness
诚 means sincere or genuine; 信 means trust, faith, or one's word. Together they name the virtue of being honest and reliable — saying what you mean and keeping your word.
信 — person 亻 + speech 言
信 combines 亻(person) with 言(speech), depicting a person standing by their words. The original sense is 'truthfulness' or 'sincerity'—what a person says can be trusted. From this it extended to 'believe,' 'trust,' and later 'message' or 'letter,' since a letter carries one's word.