难题
nántí · HSK 2
problem
🧩 难 = hard/difficult + 题 = question/problem
难题 literally stacks 难 (hard) onto 题 (a question or topic), so the whole word is a hard question — a tough problem or thorny issue. The 题 in 问题/话题/标题 always points to a question or heading.
难 — 又 (right hand) + 隹 (short-tailed bird)
Originally written with 堇 (clay) plus 隹 (bird), 難 depicted a rare bird and was borrowed to mean 'difficult.' The modern simplified form replaces the left side with 又 (hand). The phonetic role of the original left component gave the reading nán.
题 — page radical 頁 + 是 (phonetic)
题 is a phono-semantic compound. The right side 是 gives the sound (shì→tí), while the left 頁 (simplified 页, 'head/page') carries the meaning, since titles and topics were written at the top of a page. Original sense was 'forehead,' later extended to 'title, topic, problem.'