外贸
wài mào · HSK 7
foreign trade
🌐💱 外 (outside/foreign) + 贸 (trade) = foreign trade
外 — evening 夕 + divination 卜
Originally a compound of 夕 (evening) and 卜 (divination). Ancient Chinese divinations were performed in the morning; doing them at evening (夕) was considered irregular or 'outside' the norm. From this sense of deviation, 外 came to mean 'outside' or 'external'.