暴力
bàolì · HSK 6
violence
💥👊 暴 violent + 力 force/strength = violence
暴 (bào) means violent/sudden and appears in words like 暴风 storm; 力 (lì) means strength/force. Together: violent force = violence. The 力 radical is a pictograph of a flexed arm.
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'.