遗忘
yíwàng · HSK 7
to forget; to cease to think about (sb or sth) anymore
🗑️ 遗 leave-behind + 忘 forget = let something slip out of memory and stay gone
遗 means to lose or leave behind; 忘 means to forget. Together they stack two senses of loss, so 遗忘 is stronger than a passing lapse: something is set down, neglected, and never retrieved.
忘 — 亡 (lose/perish) on top + 心 (heart) on bottom
忘 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The bottom 心 (heart/mind) gives the meaning, since forgetting happens in the mind, while the top 亡 (to lose, perish) supplies both the sound and the sense of something gone. Together they depict a thought lost from the heart — to forget.