太极拳
tài jí quán · HSK 7
a martial art
🥋 太 supreme + 极 ultimate/pole + 拳 fist = the supreme-ultimate boxing art, Tai Chi
太 — 大 'big' + extra dot 丶
太 originally derived from 大 ('big, person with arms outstretched') with an added stroke to mean 'greatest' or 'too much'. The extra dot intensifies 大, signaling something beyond merely big. Over time it came to mean 'very', 'too', or 'highest'.
极 — wood radical 木 + 及 (jí, phonetic)
极 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 木 (wood) hints at the meaning, since the original sense was the ridgepole — the highest beam of a roof. 及 supplies the sound 'jí'. From 'topmost beam' the meaning extended to 'extreme, utmost, pole', as in 北极 (North Pole).
拳 — hand 手 (bottom) + phonetic 龹
拳 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The bottom component 手 ('hand') gives the meaning, since a fist is formed by the hand. The top element 龹 supplies the sound, hinting at the reading quán. The original sense was 'closed hand, fist,' later extended to 'boxing' and martial arts.