抵消
dǐ xiāo · HSK 7
to cancel out
⚖️ dǐ = resist/push back + xiāo = eliminate — push back until gone
The first character 抵 means to resist or push against, while 消 means to disappear or eliminate. Together they describe two forces pushing against each other until they cancel out, like debits offsetting credits.
消 — water 氵 + 肖 (phonetic)
消 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the water radical 氵 indicates the meaning, while 肖 (xiào) supplies the sound. It originally described water dwindling or melting away, and from there extended to the modern senses of vanishing, dissolving, and dispelling.