会员
huìyuán · HSK 3
member
🪪 会 = meeting/club + 员 = person → club person = member
会 means association or gathering; 员 denotes a person filling a role (think 店员 shop-clerk, 演员 actor). Stack them and you get the 'person belonging to an association' — a member. Same 员 shows up across many job/role words.
会 — 人 person on top + 云 cloud/say below (simplified from 會)
The traditional form 會 showed a lid over a vessel with contents stacked inside, depicting things coming together — hence 'meet, gather, assemble.' From 'gathering' it extended to 'meeting,' then 'understand' (minds meeting) and 'be able to.' The simplified 会 keeps only a schematic top and bottom.
员 — mouth 口 + shell/money 贝 (貝)
Originally a pictograph of a round bronze tripod vessel, with 口 depicting its round opening and 鼎 (later simplified to 貝/贝) showing the vessel itself. The original sense was 'round,' now written 圓/圆. It was borrowed to mean 'member' or 'person in a role,' which became its main modern meaning.