邪恶
xié è · HSK 7
evil
😈 邪 (evil, crooked) + 恶 (wicked, vicious) = two evil characters stacked into one nasty word
邪 xié means crooked or heretical; 恶 è means wicked or vicious. Both halves already mean bad, so 邪恶 doubles down to a strong evil. The è here is the same 恶 as in 恶心 (disgusting).
邪 — 牙 (tooth/phonetic) + 阝 (right ear, 邑 city radical)
邪 is a phonosemantic compound. The right-side 阝 (from 邑, 'settlement') originally referred to a place name, while 牙 supplied the sound. Over time the place-name use faded and the character was borrowed for the abstract sense 'crooked, evil, heterodox,' which is now its main meaning.
恶 — 亚 (yà) phonetic + 心 (heart) below
A semantic-phonetic compound: the heart radical 心 carries the meaning, while 亚 supplies the sound. Originally written 惡, it depicted a 'heart' beneath 亞, suggesting feelings of dislike or hatred. Over time it extended from 'to hate' (wù) to 'evil, bad' (è).