赶忙
gǎn máng · HSK 6
to hurry
🏃💨 赶 (chase/rush) + 忙 (busy) = rush-busy → hurry up
赶 means to chase or rush (think of catching a train), and 忙 means busy. Together: rushing because you're busy → to hasten. The 忙 component is 心 (heart) + 亡 (lost) — heart-lost = too busy to think.
赶 — walk radical 走 + 旱 (gan, phonetic)
赶 combines 走 'to walk/run' as the meaning component with 旱 as the phonetic clue for the sound gǎn. The walking radical points to its core meanings: to hurry, to chase, or to drive (animals) along. The simplified form replaced the older 趕, which used 倝 as phonetic.
忙 — heart radical 忄 + 亡 (lose/perish)
忙 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The heart radical 忄 gives the meaning, suggesting a state of mind, while 亡 (lose, perish) supplies the sound. The image is of a heart so overwhelmed it 'loses itself' — hence 'busy, hurried, flustered'.