水龙头
shuǐ lóng toú · HSK 7
faucet
🚰 水龙头 = water + dragon + head; the dragon-head spout that water pours from
水 (water) + 龙 (dragon) + 头 (head). Old ornamental spouts were shaped as a dragon's head, so the water-dragon-head became the everyday word for a faucet or tap.
水 — pictograph of flowing water
水 is a pictograph depicting a stream of flowing water, with the central line representing the main current and the side strokes showing splashing droplets or ripples. In oracle bone script it was drawn even more clearly as a wavy vertical line with branches. It retains its original meaning of 'water' and also serves as a radical, often appearing in the compressed form 氵.
龙 — simplified form of 龍; phonetic-pictographic
龙 is the simplified form of the traditional 龍, an ancient pictograph depicting a serpentine dragon with a crested head, scaly body, and curling tail. In oracle bone script it was clearly drawn as a mythical reptile. The character has always meant 'dragon', a powerful and auspicious creature in Chinese culture.
头 — 页 (head/page) + 豆 (bean, phonetic)
The traditional form 頭 combines 頁 (xié), meaning 'head', with 豆 (dòu) as the phonetic component. 頁 itself originally depicted a person with an emphasized head. The simplified form 头 is a modern shorthand that replaces 豆+頁 with a simpler shape while keeping the same meaning of 'head' or 'top'.