拳头
quán tou · HSK 7
fist
✊ 拳头 = 拳 fist + 头 head, where 头 is just a noun suffix; sounds like chwen-toe
拳 carries the fist meaning; 头 is the same throwaway noun-ending found in 石头 stone and 木头 wood, so it adds no extra sense here. The whole word is the everyday term for a clenched fist. The competitive product sense is figurative slang.
拳 — hand 手 (bottom) + phonetic 龹
拳 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The bottom component 手 ('hand') gives the meaning, since a fist is formed by the hand. The top element 龹 supplies the sound, hinting at the reading quán. The original sense was 'closed hand, fist,' later extended to 'boxing' and martial arts.
头 — 页 (head/page) + 豆 (bean, phonetic)
The traditional form 頭 combines 頁 (xié), meaning 'head', with 豆 (dòu) as the phonetic component. 頁 itself originally depicted a person with an emphasized head. The simplified form 头 is a modern shorthand that replaces 豆+頁 with a simpler shape while keeping the same meaning of 'head' or 'top'.