多元
duōyuán · HSK 7
multicomponent
🔷🔶 多 many + 元 origin/unit = many origins, multi-
多 means many or much. 元 means origin, unit, or element (as in 元素). Together they literally say many-elements, giving us multiplex, multivariate, poly-.
多 — two 夕 (evening) stacked
多 originally depicted two pieces of meat (夕, a variant of 肉) stacked together, suggesting abundance. Over time it was reanalyzed as two 'evenings' piled up — many evenings meaning many days, hence 'many, much'. The doubling itself conveys quantity.
元 — 二 (two) + 兒 variant 儿 (legs/person)
元 originally depicted a person with the head emphasized on top, meaning 'head' or 'origin'. From this came the extended senses of 'first', 'beginning', and 'primary'. It was later borrowed as the name of the Yuan dynasty and the modern Chinese currency unit.