书桌
shū zhuō · HSK 5
desk
📚🪑 书 (book) + 桌 (table) = book-table = desk
书 means book and 桌 means table, so a 书桌 is literally a book-table — the table where you keep and read your books. Compare 餐桌 (meal-table = dining table) for the same 桌 pattern.
书 — hand 又 holding brush over 曰 (say/speak)
Originally a pictograph of a hand gripping a writing brush above a mouth or vessel, depicting the act of writing speech down. The traditional form 書 shows 聿 (brush) over 曰 (to say). Simplified 书 preserves the brush-in-hand shape, and the meaning extended from 'to write' to 'writing' and then 'book'.