初级
chū jí · HSK 3
junior
🔰 初 = first/beginning + 级 = level/grade → beginner level
初 (chū) means 'first' or 'beginning' — its left side is the cloth radical 衤 with 刀 (knife), originally the first cut when tailoring cloth. 级 (jí) means 'rank' or 'grade'. Together: the first/beginner grade.
初 — clothes radical 衤 + knife 刀
初 combines 衤 (clothes) and 刀 (knife), depicting the act of cutting cloth to begin making a garment. From this concrete image of starting a tailoring task came the extended meaning 'beginning' or 'first'. It is an associative compound, not phonetic.
级 — silk radical 纟 + 及 jí (phonetic)
级 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The silk radical 纟 originally referred to threads or the steps/ranks of silk cords used to mark official grades. The right side 及 (jí) supplies the sound. Over time the meaning shifted from 'cord-marked rank' to general 'level, grade, class.'