智力
zhì lì · HSK 4
intelligence
🧠 智 (wisdom) + 力 (power) = intelligence, the power of wisdom
智 combines 知 (know) over 日 (sun/day), suggesting daily knowing. 力 depicts a flexed arm = strength. Together: the strength of knowing, i.e. intellect.
力 — pictograph of a plow or arm muscle
力 originated as a pictograph of an ancient plow, the main tool requiring physical exertion in early agriculture. Some scholars also see it as a flexed arm showing muscle. From this concrete image it broadened to mean 'strength, power, force, effort'.