刻意
kèyì · HSK 7
purposely
🔪 刻 carve + 意 intention = to carve out your intention on purpose, deliberately
刻 (kè) is to carve or engrave; 意 (yì) is intention or meaning. Something done 刻意 is so deliberate it is as if you carved the intention in by hand, on purpose and with conscious effort.
刻 — knife radical 刂 + 亥 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 亥 supplies the sound, while the knife radical 刂 on the right gives the meaning, since 刻 originally referred to carving or engraving with a blade. From 'to carve' it extended to marking time notches on a sundial, hence the modern sense of 'a moment' or 'quarter hour'.