包裹
bāo guǒ · HSK 4
parcel
📦 包 (wrap) + 裹 (bind) — wrap + bind = bundle/parcel
包 means to wrap or cover; 裹 means to bind or wind around. Together 包裹 doubles down on the wrapping action, giving the noun sense of a parcel or bundle and the verb sense of wrapping something up tightly.
包 — 勹 wrap + 巳 fetus
包 is a pictograph showing a fetus (巳) wrapped inside a womb (勹, an enclosing shape). The original sense was 'to wrap' or 'enclose,' and it later extended to mean a bundle, package, or bag. It also serves as a phonetic component in many characters like 抱, 泡, and 饱.
裹 — 衣 (clothing) wraps around 果 (fruit, phonetic)
裹 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the outer 衣 'clothing/garment' is split open to enclose 果 'fruit', which also supplies the sound. The image is of wrapping something up in cloth, like bundling fruit, giving the core meaning 'to wrap, bundle, parcel'.