牛仔裤
niú zǎi kù · HSK 5
jeans
👖 牛仔裤 = cow + kid + pants (cowboy pants = jeans)
牛 niú (cow) + 仔 zǎi (kid/young one) together mean cowboy; 裤 kù means trousers. So 牛仔裤 literally reads cowboy-pants, the standard Mandarin word for jeans.
牛 — pictograph of an ox head with horns
牛 is a pictograph that originally depicted the head of an ox or cow, with the top strokes representing the curved horns and the vertical line the face. Early oracle bone forms show the horns clearly. The meaning has remained stable for over three thousand years: cattle, ox, or cow.