印刷
yìnshuā · HSK 5
🖨️ 印 = stamp/seal + 刷 = brush; stamping with brush = print
印 originally meant a carved seal pressed onto paper, and 刷 means to brush or sweep. Together they describe the woodblock printing process: ink-brushed seals stamped onto pages.
印 — hand 爪 (claw) + kneeling person 卩
Originally a pictograph showing a hand pressing down on a kneeling figure, depicting the act of stamping or sealing. The meaning extended from 'to press a seal' to the seal itself, and then to 'print' or 'imprint' in modern usage.
刷 — 刂 knife + 㕞 (brush, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 㕞 originally depicted a brush or scrubber and supplies the sound, while the knife radical 刂 hints at scraping or sweeping action. The character came to mean 'to brush, scrub, or swipe,' later extending to modern senses like swiping a card or binge-watching.