求救
qiú jiù · HSK 7
to cry for help
🆘 求 = beg/seek + 救 = rescue, so 求救 = beg for rescue
求 means to seek or beg and 救 means to save or rescue. Put them together and you get the act of begging to be rescued, a cry for help.
求 — pictograph of a fur garment
求 originally depicted a fur coat or pelt, with hairs hanging from the sides. It was later borrowed phonetically to mean 'seek' or 'request,' and the original 'fur' meaning was taken over by 裘. Today 求 almost always means to seek, beg, or pursue.
救 — 求 (seek/phonetic) + 攵 (strike/action)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 攵 (a hand holding a stick) gives the action sense of intervening or stopping, while 求 supplies the sound 'jiu'. Originally meaning to halt or stop something bad, it extended to 'rescue, save, aid'.