察看
chá kàn · HSK 7
to look carefully at
🔍👀 chá kàn = inspect + look — a detective CHecks A case, then KANs the scene
察 means to examine or inspect, 看 means to look. Together they form careful observation. The chá sounds like 'check' and kàn like 'can' — you check what you can see.
看 — hand 手 over eye 目
看 is an associative compound showing a hand (手, simplified to 龹) shading an eye (目), depicting someone shielding their eyes to look into the distance. From this concrete gesture it broadened to mean 'to look,' 'to watch,' and later 'to read' or 'to consider.'