代价
dàijià · HSK 5
cost
💰 代价 = 代 (substitute/replace) + 价 (price) — the price paid in exchange
代 means substitute or on behalf of; 价 means price. Together: the price given in exchange for something — the cost or forfeit. Often used for the cost of an action, not a shop price (那是 价格).
代 — person radical 亻 + 弋 (stake/dart, phonetic)
代 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 亻 (person) gives the meaning and 弋 supplies the sound. The original sense was one person taking the place of another, which broadened to 'substitute,' 'replace,' and then 'generation' or 'era' — successive groups of people replacing the previous.
价 — person radical 亻 + 介 (jiè)
价 is the simplified form of 價. The traditional form combines 亻 (person) with 賈 (merchant), pointing to the act of pricing goods. In the simplified version, 賈 was replaced by the phonetic 介, which hints at the 'jià' reading while keeping the 'person' radical for the trading sense.