授权
shòuquán · HSK 7
authorize
🔑 授 grant + 权 power = hand over the power; to authorize someone
授 means to grant or confer, 权 means power or rights. Together they spell granting power to someone. Sounds like show-chwen: a boss shows the chosen one the keys to act on his behalf.
权 — wood 木 + 雚 (heron, phonetic)
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 木 (tree/wood) gives the meaning, while 雚 supplies the sound 'quan'. The early sense referred to a specific tree, then shifted to mean a weight used on a steelyard balance. From 'weight' it extended metaphorically to 'authority' and 'power', the dominant modern meaning.