劳动力
láodònglì · HSK 7
force
💪🛠️ 劳动 (labor) + 力 (force/strength) = labor force; 劳=toil, 动=move, 力=power
劳动 means labor or work (劳 toil + 动 move), and 力 means strength or force. Stack them and you get the labor force: the able-bodied power available to do physical work.
动 — force 力 + heavy/重 (simplified from 動)
The traditional form 動 combines 重 (heavy) as the phonetic with 力 (force/strength) as the semantic, suggesting the effort needed to move something heavy. The simplified form 动 replaces 重 with 云, keeping 力 to convey action and motion.
力 — pictograph of a plow or arm muscle
力 originated as a pictograph of an ancient plow, the main tool requiring physical exertion in early agriculture. Some scholars also see it as a flexed arm showing muscle. From this concrete image it broadened to mean 'strength, power, force, effort'.