好久
hǎo jiǔ · HSK 2
quite a while
⏳ 好久 = 好 (very) + 久 (long time) — 'a good long while'
好 here works as an intensifier meaning 'very' or 'quite', and 久 means 'long time' or 'long-lasting'. Together 好久 literally reads as 'quite long', used for stretches of time like 好久不见 (long time no see).
好 — woman 女 + child 子
好 is an associative compound showing a woman 女 beside a child 子, depicting a mother with her baby. From this image of maternal affection it came to mean 'good, fine, pleasing.' The reading hǎo means 'good'; read hào it means 'to like.'
久 — person 人 with a stroke marking the back
Originally a pictograph showing a person from behind with a mark indicating moxibustion treatment applied to the back, the original sense of 'cauterize' (now written 灸). It was borrowed phonetically to mean 'long time' or 'enduring,' which became its standard meaning.