末日
mò rì · HSK 7
final days
🌅 末 (end/final) + 日 (day) = the final day, the end
末 means tip or end of something (as in 末尾, the very end); 日 means day or sun. Stacked together they name the last day. In Christian usage it became the term for Judgment Day, the end of all days.
末 — tree 木 with extended top stroke marking the tip
末 is an indicative character: it shows the tree 木 with an emphasized horizontal line near the top to point at the treetop, the 'tip' or 'end' of the branches. From this concrete sense it extended to mean 'end,' 'final,' or 'minor/trivial' (as opposed to the root 本).
日 — pictograph of the sun
日 is a pictograph of the sun, originally drawn as a circle with a dot or stroke inside representing the sun's substance. Over time the round shape was squared off into the modern rectangular form. It means 'sun' and by extension 'day'.