板块
bǎn kuài · HSK 7
slab
🧱🌍 板块 = board + chunk — a flat slab, from floor tile to tectonic plate
板 means board or plank; 块 means piece or lump. Together they denote any broad flat chunk — concrete slabs, stock-market sectors, or the continental plates grinding under your feet.
板 — wood radical 木 + 反 (fǎn, phonetic)
板 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The 木 'wood' radical signals the meaning — a flat piece of wood, i.e. a board or plank. The right side 反 supplies the sound, historically close to 'bǎn/pàn'. Over time it extended to mean any flat panel, and figuratively 'stiff' or 'inflexible'.
块 — earth radical 土 + 鬼 (ghost/lump)
Originally written 塊, a semantic-phonetic compound: 土 (earth) gives the meaning 'lump of soil or clod,' while 鬼 supplies the sound. The modern simplified form 块 replaces 鬼 with 夬 as a simpler phonetic. Meaning extended from 'clod' to any lump, piece, or chunk, and later to a unit of currency (yuan).