剥削
bō xuē · HSK 7
to exploit
🔪 peel + pare: strip away what others have earned
剥 means to peel or strip off; 削 means to pare or whittle down. Together they describe systematically stripping value from someone else's labor — exploitation.
剥 — 录 (carve) + 刂 (knife radical)
剥 is a semantic compound: 刂 (knife) on the right shows the action, while 录 on the left originally depicted carving or scraping. Together they convey peeling or stripping something off with a blade. The two readings split usage: bāo in everyday speech (peel fruit), bō in compounds (剥削 exploit).
削 — 肖 (phonetic) + 刂 knife radical
削 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the knife radical 刂 gives the meaning of cutting or paring, while 肖 (xiāo) supplies the sound. The original sense was to pare or shave with a blade, which extended to figurative meanings like to reduce, strip away, or cut down.