楼道
loú dào · HSK 6
corridor
🏢🚶 楼 floor/building + 道 path = the path through floors
Lou means floor or storied building, dao means road or path. Together they form the walkway connecting floors — a corridor or hallway inside an apartment building or similar multi-story structure.
楼 — wood radical 木 + 婁 (lóu, phonetic)
楼 is a phono-semantic compound. The 木 radical signals wood, fitting a multi-storied wooden building, while 婁 supplies the lóu sound. Originally written 樓, it referred to a tower or upper story, and today means a multi-floor building or a specific floor.
道 — 辶 (walk) + 首 (head)
Originally a compound of 辶 'walk/movement' and 首 'head', depicting a path one walks while looking ahead. The literal sense 'road, way' extended metaphorically to 'method, doctrine, the Way (Dao)'. This philosophical meaning became central in Daoist and Confucian thought.