在家
zàijiā · HSK 1
At home
🏠 在 = at/located + 家 = home/family
在 marks location (at/in); 家 depicts a roof 宀 over 豕 (pig), since ancient homes kept livestock indoors. Together: at-home.
在 — earth 土 + phonetic 才
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 土 (earth) gives the meaning of a place or location, while 才 supplies the sound. It came to mean 'to be present/located at,' and now also serves as a grammatical marker for ongoing actions, like 'in the middle of doing.'
家 — roof 宀 + pig 豕
Originally a pictograph of a pig under a roof, since domesticated pigs were kept in or under the home in ancient China. Over time the meaning broadened from 'household' to 'family,' and by extension 'home' or a specialist (as in 专家, 'expert').