麻木
má mù · HSK 7
numb
🪵 麻 numb/tingling + 木 wood — a limb gone wooden feels nothing, it's numb
麻 (má) carries the pins-and-needles tingling sense and 木 (mù) is wood. A body part turned to dead wood has lost feeling: numb, and by extension emotionally apathetic or insensitive.
麻 — shelter 广 + two 林 (hemp fibers)
Originally a pictograph of hemp fibers (林-like shape) being processed under a shelter (广), depicting the workshop where bast fibers were stripped and dried. The core meaning was 'hemp/cannabis plant,' later extended to 'numb' or 'tingling' from the sensation hemp can cause, and to 'rough' textures like hemp cloth.