灰色
huīsè · HSK 5
gray
🌫️ 灰 = ash/grey + 色 = colour; literally ash-colour
灰 originally depicted a hand holding fire's leftover ash, so it came to mean grey. Pair it with 色 (colour) and you get the colour of ash. The figurative sense pessimistic extends from grey skies meaning gloom.
灰 — hand 又 (ナ) + fire 火
灰 originally depicted a hand (ナ, simplified from 又) holding or reaching into fire 火, representing the cooled ashes one can safely pick up after a flame dies. From this concrete sense of 'ashes,' the meaning extended to the color gray and figuratively to discouragement, as in 灰心.
色 — person 人 (top) + kneeling figure 卩 (bottom)
Originally a pictograph showing one person above another, traditionally interpreted as depicting facial expressions or intimate posture between two people. The earliest meaning was 'facial expression' or 'countenance,' which extended to 'appearance' and eventually 'color' (the look of things). The 'shǎi' reading is a colloquial variant used for everyday color words.