汇集
huì jí · HSK 7
to collect
🌊 汇 (converge) + 集 (gather) = waters and birds flock together into one place
汇 carries the water radical 氵and means to converge or remit; 集 shows a bird 隹 on a tree 木, the old sense of birds gathering. Together they mean streams and flocks pooling into one: to collect, compile, converge.
汇 — water radical 氵 + 㠯 (older form)
汇 is the simplified form of 匯, originally depicting water (氵) flowing into a container (匚), meaning a place where streams converge. From this came the extended senses of gathering, collecting, and remitting funds. Modern uses like 汇款 (remit money) and 词汇 (vocabulary) all stem from this idea of things flowing together.
集 — bird 隹 on top of tree 木
集 is an ideograph showing a bird (隹) perched on a tree (木). The original form depicted three birds gathering on a tree, later simplified to one. From 'birds flocking together' it extended to mean 'gather, collect, assemble,' and by extension 'collection' or 'volume' of writings.