沙发
shāfā · HSK 3
sofa
🛋️ 沙发 = sand + emit; phonetic loan from English 'sofa'
The characters 沙 (sand) and 发 (emit/send) carry no meaning here — they were chosen purely for their sounds shā-fā to approximate the English word 'sofa'. A classic 20th-century phonetic borrowing.
发 — simplified form of 發; from 癶 (two feet) + 弓 (bow) + 殳 (weapon)
The traditional form 發 depicted shooting an arrow from a bow, with 癶 showing outstretched feet and 弓 the bow, giving the core sense of 'send out, discharge.' From this came extended meanings like 'issue, emit, develop.' The modern simplified 发 also absorbed 髮 (hair), so it now covers both 'to send out' and 'hair.'