认 Rèn

认 is a phono-semantic compound written with the semantic 讠 "say, speech" radical on the left (讠 is the left radical form of 言 (yán)) and its phonetic component 人 (rén) “person” on the right. The traditional form of 认 is “認”; it is written with the original form of 言 on the left and the character “忍” (rěn) “endure” on the right. The traditional form exemplifies the original meaning of the character “enduring an undesirable fact”. Today, 认 means to recognize, to identify, to understand, and to admit, but can also reference its original connotations such as “to admit to, to recognize, and to understand something undesirable.”

认 can be found in words such as 认同 (rèn tóng) “identity”, 辨认 (biàn rèn) “identify”, 认知 (rèn zhī) “acknowledge”, and 体认 (tǐ rèn) “realize”.

• Category: Phono-Semantic Compound
• Component Characters: 言 Yán | "Say" and 人 Rén | "Mankind, Person"