名贵
míng guì · HSK 7
rare
💎 名贵 = 名 famous + 贵 expensive: a famous-and-pricey thing, rare and precious
名 means famous or renowned; 贵 means expensive or precious. Stack them and you get something both well-known and costly, like 名贵 jewelry or rare medicine. The 名-as-fame sense also shows up in 名字 (name) and 有名 (well-known).
名 — evening 夕 + mouth 口
A compound ideograph: in the dark of evening (夕), one cannot recognize others by sight, so the mouth (口) calls out a name to identify oneself. The original sense of 'name' broadened to include reputation, fame, and a measure word for people.
贵 — shell 贝 (money) + 中 (middle/basket)
贵 originally depicted hands holding a basket of cowrie shells (贝), which served as ancient Chinese currency. The shell radical 贝 signals connection to wealth and value. Over time it came to mean 'expensive,' 'valuable,' and by extension 'noble' or 'honored.'