开销
kāixiāo · HSK 7
expense
💸 开 open + 销 sell off = opening your wallet to sell cash away = an expense
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'.
销 — metal radical 钅 + 肖 xiāo (phonetic)
销 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The metal radical 钅 (金) signals a meaning related to metal, while 肖 supplies the sound xiāo. It originally meant to melt or smelt metal, then extended figuratively to 'dissolve away,' and later to modern senses like 'sell' (move goods away) and 'cancel/expend.'