便利店
biàn lì diàn · HSK 7
convenience store
🏪 便利 (convenient) + 店 (shop) — literally a convenient shop
便 means convenient, 利 means beneficial; together 便利 is handy. 店 (diàn) is the generic shop suffix as in 书店 bookshop or 饭店 restaurant.
便 — person 亻 + change 更
A semantic compound: 亻(person) beside 更 (to change/replace). The original sense was a person making things easier or more convenient by adjusting them. From 'convenient' it extended to 'then/thereupon' (biàn) and to bodily 'discharge' (as in 大便).
利 — grain 禾 + knife 刂
Originally a pictograph showing a knife (刂) cutting grain (禾), depicting harvest. From the idea of a sharp blade reaping crops, it extended to mean 'sharp,' then 'benefit,' 'profit,' or 'advantage' — the gain that comes from a successful harvest.
店 — 广 (shelter radical) + 占 (zhān, phonetic)
店 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The radical 广 depicts a roof or open shelter, suggesting a building, while 占 supplies the sound (zhān → diàn). Originally it referred to a roadside inn or stall set up under a shelter, and over time the meaning narrowed to 'shop' or 'store'.