灾区
zāi qū · HSK 5
area
🌪️ 灾 = disaster + 区 = zone/area
灾 (zāi) means calamity or disaster; 区 (qū) means district or zone. Together: the zone hit by disaster. 区 also shows up in 地区 (region) and 市区 (urban district).
灾 — roof 宀 + fire 火
灾 is an associative compound showing fire (火) under a roof (宀), depicting a house on fire — the original meaning of 'disaster' or 'calamity'. An older variant 災 added 巛 (flooding water) above 火, combining flood and fire as twin disasters. The modern simplified form keeps just the house-fire image.
区 — enclosure 匚 + 品 (items)
Originally a pictograph of items (品) hidden inside a container (匚), meaning to store or conceal. The sense extended to a bounded space, then to an administrative district or area. As a surname read Ōu, it preserves the older 'hidden/enclosed' nuance.