邀请
yāoqǐng · HSK 5
invite
💌 邀 = invite + 请 = please/request; together: formally request someone's presence
邀 (yāo) means to invite or solicit; 请 (qǐng) means please or to request. Combined, 邀请 is the formal act of inviting — sending a request for someone to attend or join.
邀 — 辶 walk + 敫 (phonetic, 'bright/call out')
邀 is a phono-semantic compound. The 辶 radical signals motion or going, while 敫 supplies the sound and a sense of calling out or sending forth. Together they convey going out to meet or summon someone, which evolved into the modern meaning 'to invite'.
请 — speech radical 讠 + 青 (qīng, blue/green)
请 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The speech radical 讠 (言) signals a meaning related to speaking, while 青 (qīng) supplies the sound. Originally it meant 'to ask' or 'request' through speech, and later extended to the polite 'please' and 'to invite'.