放水
fàng shuǐ · HSK 7
to turn on the water
🚰 放 (release) + 水 (water) = let the water flow — or let a win flow to your opponent
Literally releasing water from a tap or dam. The slang meaning comes from the idea of letting something flow freely without resistance — so in sports, you let the other team win on purpose.
放 — 方 (square/phonetic) + 攵 (rap/strike radical)
放 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 方 supplies the sound and 攵 (a hand holding a stick) supplies the meaning of striking or driving away. The original sense was to banish or drive out, which broadened over time to 'release', 'let go', and 'put down'.
水 — pictograph of flowing water
水 is a pictograph depicting a stream of flowing water, with the central line representing the main current and the side strokes showing splashing droplets or ripples. In oracle bone script it was drawn even more clearly as a wavy vertical line with branches. It retains its original meaning of 'water' and also serves as a radical, often appearing in the compressed form 氵.