奥运会
Ào yùn huì · HSK 7
game
🏅🔥 Ao = profound + yun = motion + hui = gathering: a grand meeting of movement
奥 means profound or mysterious, 运 means movement or luck, 会 means meeting or gathering. Together they abbreviate the Olympic Games: the profound gathering of athletic movement.
运 — walk radical 辶 + 军 jūn (army)
Originally depicted an army (军) on the move (辶), meaning to transport or move troops. The sense broadened to 'transport, move, revolve' and later acquired the abstract meaning of 'fortune' or 'luck'—what fate moves toward you. The simplified form replaces traditional 運.
会 — 人 person on top + 云 cloud/say below (simplified from 會)
The traditional form 會 showed a lid over a vessel with contents stacked inside, depicting things coming together — hence 'meet, gather, assemble.' From 'gathering' it extended to 'meeting,' then 'understand' (minds meeting) and 'be able to.' The simplified 会 keeps only a schematic top and bottom.