开夜车
kāi yè chē · HSK 6
to work late into the night
🚗🌙 kai ye che = drive + night + car — pulling an all-night drive
Literally 'drive a night car.' The metaphor treats late-night work as steering through the dark — you keep going when everyone else has stopped. A nocturnal road trip as a stand-in for burning the midnight oil.
开 — two hands 廾 + door 门 (open gate)
Originally written 開, showing two hands (廾) lifting the bar (一) off a gate (門) to open it. The simplified form 开 keeps the two-hands element and drops the gate. Core meaning 'to open' extended to 'start, operate, bloom'.
夜 — 亠 lid + 亻 person + 夕 evening moon
夜 originally depicted a person (亻) under a roof (亠) with the moon (夕) beside them, evoking nighttime rest. The moon component 夕 carries the meaning of evening, while the surrounding elements set the scene of a person at night. Over time it came to mean 'night' in general.
车 — pictograph of a chariot/cart
车 is a pictograph originally drawn as a top-down view of a chariot, showing the axle, wheels, and carriage box. The ancient form 車 clearly depicted two wheels connected by an axle. It still means vehicle, cart, or car today.