上楼
shàng loú · HSK 4
to go upstairs
⬆️🪜 上 (up) + 楼 (building/floor) = go up a floor
上 means up or to ascend; 楼 is a multi-story building or floor. Together they literally mean to ascend a floor, i.e. to go upstairs. Compare 下楼 (xià lóu) = to go downstairs.
上 — horizontal line above a baseline
上 is an indicative character (指事): a short stroke placed above a longer reference line shows the concept of 'above' or 'up'. The earliest oracle-bone forms used two horizontal lines for this; the modern shape added a vertical stroke for clarity. The core meaning of 'upper, above, to ascend' has stayed stable for millennia.
楼 — wood radical 木 + 婁 (lóu, phonetic)
楼 is a phono-semantic compound. The 木 radical signals wood, fitting a multi-storied wooden building, while 婁 supplies the lóu sound. Originally written 樓, it referred to a tower or upper story, and today means a multi-floor building or a specific floor.