未来
wèi lái · HSK 4
future
🔮 未来 = not-yet + come; what hasn't arrived
未 means 'not yet' and 来 means 'come/arrive', so 未来 literally reads as 'what has not yet come' — the future. The same 未 shows up in 未知 (unknown) and 未婚 (unmarried).
未 — tree 木 with extra short top stroke
未 originally pictured a tree with luxuriant new branches at the top, suggesting tender shoots not yet matured. From this 'not yet ripe' image it came to mean 'not yet' or 'have not.' It is also the 8th Earthly Branch, used in the traditional sexagenary cycle.
来 — pictograph of a wheat plant with grain heads
来 originally depicted a stalk of wheat with drooping grain heads, and meant 'wheat' in oracle bone script. It was later borrowed phonetically to write the unrelated verb 'to come,' which became its dominant meaning. The original 'wheat' sense was taken over by 麥 (now 麦).