拯救
zhěngjiù · HSK 7
rescue
🛟 拯 + 救 = lift-up + rescue; both have the 扌 hand radical, doing the saving by hand
拯 means to haul someone up out of danger and 救 means to rescue; stacked together they intensify into rescue or extricate. The shared 扌 (hand) radical on both characters marks this as hands-on saving. The jiù in 救 also shows up in 救命 (save a life).
救 — 求 (seek/phonetic) + 攵 (strike/action)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 攵 (a hand holding a stick) gives the action sense of intervening or stopping, while 求 supplies the sound 'jiu'. Originally meaning to halt or stop something bad, it extended to 'rescue, save, aid'.