招收
zhāoshōu · HSK 7
recruit
📋 招 (beckon/recruit) + 收 (take in) = recruit and take in new members
A school or company 招收 students or workers: 招 waves people over and 收 gathers them in. Often paired with 学生 (students) — 招收学生 means to enroll or admit students.
招 — hand radical 扌 + 召 (call)
招 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 supplies the meaning—an action done with the hand—while 召 (to summon, call) gives both phonetic value and reinforces the sense. Together they depict beckoning someone with a hand gesture, extended to 'recruit' or 'attract'.
收 — 丩 (jiū, cord/bind) + 攵 (rap/strike, action)
Originally written 收, this character combines 丩 'twisted cord' as the phonetic with 攵 'a hand holding a stick' as the semantic, depicting the action of binding up captives or gathering things together by force. The core sense 'to gather, collect, harvest' grew naturally from this image of rounding up and tying.