服务员
fú wù yuán · HSK 3
server
🧑🍳 服 (serve) + 务 (duty/task) + 员 (member/staff) = service staff member
服务 means service (serve + duty), and 员 marks a person who fills a role (like 演员 actor, 学员 trainee). So 服务员 is literally a service-role person — the staffer who waits on you at a restaurant.
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.
员 — mouth 口 + shell/money 贝 (貝)
Originally a pictograph of a round bronze tripod vessel, with 口 depicting its round opening and 鼎 (later simplified to 貝/贝) showing the vessel itself. The original sense was 'round,' now written 圓/圆. It was borrowed to mean 'member' or 'person in a role,' which became its main modern meaning.