凑合
coù he · HSK 7
to just get by
🤝🩹 COUgh + HEal — you cough through it and heal enough to get by
凑 means gather/scrape together, 合 means combine/fit. Together: cobbling things together just well enough. Like patching something up so it barely works — making do with what you have.
凑 — water 氵 + 奏 (zòu, present)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 氵 (water) gives the meaning, while 奏 supplies the sound. Originally referred to water gathering or flowing together, which extended to the modern senses of 'gather together,' 'come close,' and 'happen by chance.'
合 — 乛 (lid/roof) + 口 (mouth)
Originally a pictograph of a lidded vessel — a cover (亼) closing over an opening (口) — giving the core sense of 'come together, join, fit.' From 'fit/match' it extended to 'combine, unite, agree' and to measure-word uses. The reading hé reflects this 'joining' meaning.