收支
shoū zhī · HSK 7
flow
💰 收 receive + 支 pay out = money coming in and going out
收 is what you take in, 支 is what you pay out; together they name the two-way flow of money. 支 also means a branch or to disburse, so 收支 is the balance between collecting and spending.
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.
支 — hand 又 holding a branch 十
Originally a pictograph showing a hand (又) holding a branch broken from a tree, depicting the act of supporting or propping something up. From this came meanings like 'branch,' 'to support,' and 'to pay out.' It also serves as a phonetic component in characters like 枝 (branch) and 技 (skill).