服务
fúwù · HSK 2
serve
🛎️ 服 = clothes/submit + 务 = task/duty → serve a task
服 originally meant to submit or wear (as a uniform), and 务 means duty or affair. Together 服务 literally reads as submitting to a duty — hence to serve. A hotel bell 🛎️ is the classic call for 服务.
服 — 月 (moon/flesh) + 𠬝 (kneeling figure with hand)
Originally depicted a hand subduing a kneeling person beside a boat (later simplified to 月), suggesting submission or service. The meaning extended from 'submit/serve' to 'clothing' (what one wears in service) and 'to take' as in medicine. The phonetic role of 𠬝 helps fix the reading fú.