委员
wěiyuán · HSK 7
committee member
🪪 委员 = 委 (appoint/entrust) + 员 (member/staff) = an appointed member
委 carries the sense of entrusting or appointing; 员 is the staff/member suffix you also see in 演员 (actor) and 服务员 (waiter). Together: someone appointed to serve on a committee.
员 — mouth 口 + shell/money 贝 (貝)
Originally a pictograph of a round bronze tripod vessel, with 口 depicting its round opening and 鼎 (later simplified to 貝/贝) showing the vessel itself. The original sense was 'round,' now written 圓/圆. It was borrowed to mean 'member' or 'person in a role,' which became its main modern meaning.