治疗
zhìliáo · HSK 4
to treat (an illness); medical treatment
💊 治疗 = govern/manage (治) + heal (疗)
治 means to govern or manage (also seen in 政治 politics); 疗 means to heal or cure. Together: to manage an illness back to health — treatment or cure.
治 — water radical 氵 + 台 (phonetic)
治 originally referred to the name of a river, written with the water radical 氵 for meaning and 台 as the phonetic component. From 'managing rivers' (flood control), the meaning broadened to 'govern, regulate, manage,' and later 'cure, heal' — all senses of bringing something unruly under control.