扛
kāng · HSK 7
carry on the shoulder
🏋️ 扛 = 扌hand + 工 work; hand doing heavy work means hoist it onto your shoulder
The 扌 hand radical signals an action done with the arms, and 工 (gōng, labor/tool) hints at heavy lifting. Sound-alike: kāng is close to King Kong, who hoists loads onto one shoulder.
扛 — hand radical 扌 + 工 (gōng, phonetic)
扛 is a phono-semantic compound. The hand radical 扌 gives the meaning, since the character refers to lifting or carrying with the hands or shoulders. The component 工 supplies the sound, originally close to 'gōng/kāng'. Today it most often means to shoulder or carry a heavy load.