客户
kèhù · HSK 5
customer
🧑💼 客户 = guest (客) + household (户) → the household that visits = customer
客 means guest or visitor; 户 means household or door. A 客户 is literally a visiting household — the outside party your business serves. Same 客 appears in 客人 (guest) and 乘客 (passenger).
户 — single-leaf door (half of 門)
户 is a pictograph showing a single-leaf door, originally drawn as half of 門 (a double door). It came to mean 'door,' then by extension 'household' or 'family,' since a door marks one dwelling. Today it commonly means 'household' or 'account.'
kè hù · HSK 4
customer
🧑💼 客 = guest + 户 = household/door; the guest at your door is your customer
客 means guest or visitor, and 户 originally depicted a single-leaf door, by extension a household. Together 客户 names the outside party who comes to do business with you — the client or customer.
户 — single-leaf door (half of 門)
户 is a pictograph showing a single-leaf door, originally drawn as half of 門 (a double door). It came to mean 'door,' then by extension 'household' or 'family,' since a door marks one dwelling. Today it commonly means 'household' or 'account.'