归来
guīlái · HSK 7
come back
🏠 归来 = 归 (return) + 来 (come) = come back, the act of returning home
归 carries the sense of going back where you belong; 来 adds the direction toward the speaker. Together they mean coming back. The two-syllable guīlái has a slightly literary, homecoming feel compared with plain 回来.
归 — 阜 (mound) + 帚 (broom) + 止 (foot)
Originally depicted a bride being escorted to her husband's home, with 帚 (broom) symbolizing her domestic role and 止 (foot) showing movement. The meaning shifted from 'a woman returning to her marital home' to the broader sense of 'to return' or 'go back'. The 阜 component suggests the journey involved.
来 — pictograph of a wheat plant with grain heads
来 originally depicted a stalk of wheat with drooping grain heads, and meant 'wheat' in oracle bone script. It was later borrowed phonetically to write the unrelated verb 'to come,' which became its dominant meaning. The original 'wheat' sense was taken over by 麥 (now 麦).