照相
zhào xiàng · HSK 2
to take a photograph
📷 照相 = shine/illuminate + appearance; capture how something looks
照 means to shine light on or illuminate, and 相 means appearance or likeness. Together they describe the act of using light to record an appearance — taking a photo. Related: 照片 (zhào piàn) = photograph.
照 — 昭 (bright) phonetic + 灬 (fire radical)
照 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The bottom 灬 is a variant of 火 'fire', giving the meaning of light or illumination, while 昭 'bright' on top supplies the sound 'zhào' and reinforces the brightness sense. It originally meant to shine light on something, later extending to 'reflect', 'photograph', and 'according to'.