兼顾
jiāngù · HSK 7
deal with two or more things
🤹 兼 = both/at once + 顾 = look after; juggle two things at once
兼 means handling more than one thing simultaneously; 顾 means to look after or attend to. Together: keep an eye on two or more matters at the same time, like a juggler keeping several balls in play.
兼 — hand 又 holding two grain stalks 秝
兼 is an ideograph showing a hand (又) grasping two stalks of grain (秝) at once. The original meaning was 'to hold two things together,' which extended to 'combine,' 'simultaneously,' and 'both.' This sense of doubling up survives in modern compounds like 兼职 (hold a concurrent job).
顾 — page 頁 + cliff 厃 (phonetic 雇)
顧 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 頁 (head) gives the meaning of turning the head to look back, while 雇 supplies the sound. The original sense was 'to turn and gaze,' which extended to 'consider, care for, attend to.' The simplified form 顾 keeps the same structure with 页.