审美
shěn měi · HSK 7
esthetics
🎨 审 (examine) + 美 (beauty) = examining beauty = aesthetics, good taste
审 means to examine or judge carefully; 美 means beauty. Together: the faculty of judging what is beautiful. Sounds like shen-may, and the may end echoes 美 mei = beauty.
美 — sheep 羊 on top + big 大 below
美 is traditionally explained as a pictograph of a person (大) wearing a large sheep or ram's-head ornament, suggesting beauty through adornment. An alternative reading takes 羊 (sheep) over 大 (big) to mean 'a big, fat sheep'—seen as delicious and pleasing, hence 'beautiful, good'.