The word "嫌弃" is formed from the characters "嫌" and "弃". "嫌" is a phono-semantic compound where the radical "女" (woman) historically implies negative associations, and the component "兼" indicates sound, contributing the meaning "to dislike". "弃" is an ideographic character originally depicting the act of discarding a child, meaning "to abandon". Combined, they create a word meaning "to dislike and avoid" or "to reject out of displeasure".