果汁
guǒ zhī · HSK 3
fruit juice
🧃 果 = fruit + 汁 = juice/liquid
果 (guǒ) means fruit; 汁 (zhī) means juice or liquid (the 氵 water radical on the left signals liquid). Together: fruit-liquid = fruit juice.
果 — fruit shape 田-like top + tree 木
果 is a pictograph: early forms show a tree (木) with round fruit hanging on its branches, later stylized into the 田-like top. Its original meaning was 'fruit', which extended to 'result, outcome' — the fruit of an action — and to 'resolute, decisive'.
汁 — water radical 氵 + ten 十
A semantic-phonetic compound. The water radical 氵 signals a liquid, while 十 (originally read with a sound close to zhī) provides the phonetic cue. Together they denote sap or juice — any liquid squeezed from a plant or food.