引领
yǐn lǐng · HSK 7
to lead
🦒 引 draw/pull + 领 neck/collar = pull your neck forward — crane it to await, or lead the way
引 means to draw or pull; 领 means neck or collar (also to lead). Together: stretch your neck out — either craning it to wait eagerly, or going neck-first ahead of others to lead and show the way.
引 — bow 弓 + vertical stroke 丨
A compound ideograph showing a bow 弓 with a vertical line 丨 representing the drawn bowstring. The original meaning was 'to draw a bow,' which extended to 'pull,' 'lead,' 'guide,' and 'cite.' The vertical stroke depicts the action of pulling the string back.
领 — 令 (command, phonetic) + 页 (head)
A semantic-phonetic compound. 页 (head/page) gives the meaning, originally referring to the neck or collar — the part connecting the head to the body. 令 supplies the sound. From 'neck/collar' it extended to 'lead, guide, receive,' since the neck leads the body.