图书馆
túshūguǎn · HSK 1
library
📚🏛️ 图书馆 = chart/map + book + building (hall for books)
Breaks down as 图 (chart/picture) + 书 (book) + 馆 (hall/establishment). The 馆 suffix appears in many public buildings: 餐馆 restaurant, 博物馆 museum, 大使馆 embassy.
图 — enclosure 囗 + 冬 (simplified from 啚)
Originally written 圖, showing an enclosure 囗 around 啚, a depiction of a granary or rural settlement on a map. The whole character meant a map or chart of demarcated territory. Meaning later broadened to picture, diagram, or to plan/scheme.
书 — hand 又 holding brush over 曰 (say/speak)
Originally a pictograph of a hand gripping a writing brush above a mouth or vessel, depicting the act of writing speech down. The traditional form 書 shows 聿 (brush) over 曰 (to say). Simplified 书 preserves the brush-in-hand shape, and the meaning extended from 'to write' to 'writing' and then 'book'.