分红
fēn hóng · HSK 7
to award a bonus
💰 分 (divide) + 红 (red/bonus) = dividing up the red envelopes of profit
Red envelopes (红包) are synonymous with cash gifts in Chinese culture. 分红 literally means dividing the red — splitting the profits among shareholders or employees as dividends or bonuses.
分 — knife 刀 + eight 八 (split apart)
分 originally depicted a knife (刀) cutting something into two parts, shown by 八 above (which itself meant 'divide'). The core sense is 'to divide' or 'split', from which extended meanings like 'portion', 'minute', and 'part' developed. Pronounced fèn, it carries the sense of an allotted share.
红 — silk radical 糹/纟 + work 工 (phonetic)
红 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The silk radical 糹 (simplified 纟) signals the meaning, since the character originally referred to a kind of pink or light-red dyed silk. The right side 工 supplies the sound. Over time the meaning broadened from the dye color to 'red' in general.