印刷术
yìn shuā shù · HSK 7
printing
🖨️ 印 stamp + 刷 brush + 术 art = the art of stamping ink with a brush
印 means stamp or print, 刷 means to brush or swipe, and 术 means technique or art. Together they name the craft of printing: pressing inked type onto paper, a technology China pioneered.
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.