批判
ひはん · hihan · JLPT N3 · noun
criticism
🗣️ 批判 = strike + judge: a judgement that hits hard
批 means to strike or comment on, as in a teacher's marks on a paper. 判 means to judge, as in 判断 (handan, judgement). Put a verdict and a strike together and you have criticism. Sound hook: hihan is close to he-he, no, the sound of someone mocking.
批 — hand radical 扌 + 比 (compare, phonetic)
批 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the hand radical 扌 signals an action done with the hand, while 比 supplies the sound (bǐ → pī). Its original sense was to strike or slap with the hand, which extended to 'push aside,' then to 'judge' or 'comment on' (as in 批评), and finally to 'a batch' of things handled together.
判 — half 半 (phonetic) + knife 刂 (semantic)
判 combines 半 'half' with 刂 'knife', literally suggesting cutting something in two. The knife radical gives the meaning of dividing or judging, while 半 provides the sound. From 'splitting apart' it extended to 'discriminate, judge, decide'.