学术
xuéshù · HSK 4
academic
🎓📚 学 (study) + 术 (art/method) = the art of studying = academic
学 means to study or learn; 术 means art, skill, or method. Together they form the discipline and methodology of formal study — academic pursuits, scholarship, and systematic fields of knowledge ending in -ology.
学 — hands 𦥑 + roof 冖 + child 子
Originally 學, depicting two hands manipulating something (often interpreted as counting rods or the 爻 trigram symbols) under a roof, with a child 子 below — a child learning under instruction. The simplified form 学 replaces the top with a stylized 龸. Core meaning has always been 'to study, learn'.