流水
liúshuǐ · HSK 7
water
🌊💧 流水 = 流 (flow) + 水 (water) = flowing water; also business turnover
The two characters stack literally: flow plus water. The business sense (turnover) extends the metaphor of cash flowing in and out like a running stream.
流 — water radical 氵 + 㐬 (phonetic, child being born)
流 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The water radical 氵 gives the meaning, while 㐬 depicts an infant being born head-down with amniotic fluid, suggesting downward flow. Together they convey water flowing, and by extension 'to flow' or 'current'.
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.