信頼
しんらい · shinrai · JLPT N3 · noun
trust
🤝 信頼 = believe (信) + rely on (頼): trust you can lean on
信 (shin) means believe, as in 信じる. 頼 (rai) means rely or request, as in 頼る and 頼む. Believing in someone enough to depend on them gives reliance, trust, confidence.
信 — person 亻 + speech 言
信 combines 亻(person) with 言(speech), depicting a person standing by their words. The original sense is 'truthfulness' or 'sincerity'—what a person says can be trusted. From this it extended to 'believe,' 'trust,' and later 'message' or 'letter,' since a letter carries one's word.