世界杯
Shì jiè bēi · HSK 3
World Cup
🏆⚽ 世界 = world + 杯 = cup/trophy
世界 means world (世 generation + 界 boundary/realm). 杯 originally meant a drinking cup, and by extension a trophy cup awarded to winners. So 世界杯 literally reads world-cup.
界 — field 田 + scope 介
界 combines 田 (field) as the semantic component with 介 (jiè) as the phonetic. The original sense referred to boundaries between fields, then broadened to any border, limit, or realm — yielding modern meanings like 'world' (世界) and 'boundary' (边界).
杯 — wood radical 木 + 不 (phonetic)
杯 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The 木 radical signals wood, since ancient cups were carved from wood, while 不 hints at the sound. Originally written 桮, it came to mean any cup or glass regardless of material.