惹 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

rě HSK7

irritate

Phonosemantic compound. 心 represents the meaning and 若 represents the sound.

Components

心 Meaning component

xīn, xin heart

若 Sound component

ruò if

Change in sound

惹 and 若 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
惹 njaʔ
若 *nak

Regular Modern

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《說文新附》：“惹，亂也。从心，若聲。”