闪电
shǎn diàn · HSK 4
lightning
⚡ 闪 = flash + 电 = electricity
闪 means flash or sudden movement; 电 means electricity. Together: flashing electricity, i.e. lightning. The character 闪 shows a person 人 darting through a doorway 门, a quick flash of motion.
闪 — door 門 + person 人
闪 (traditional 閃) is an associative compound showing a person 人 inside a doorway 門, suggesting someone darting in or peeking out. From this image of sudden, brief movement came the meanings 'flash,' 'dodge,' and 'lightning.' The simplified form keeps the same structure with the reduced 门.
电 — rain 雨 + lightning tail 电
Originally a pictograph of lightning streaking from a cloud, written 電 with the rain radical 雨 on top. The bottom 电 depicts the zigzag flash itself. The simplified form 电 drops 雨 and keeps just the lightning shape. Meaning extended from 'lightning' to 'electricity' in modern usage.