牛肉
niú ròu · HSK 3
beef
🐂🥩 牛肉 = cow (牛) + meat (肉)
Compound of 牛 (niú, cow/ox) and 肉 (ròu, meat/flesh). Literally cow-meat. The same 肉 shows up in 鸡肉 chicken, 猪肉 pork, 羊肉 lamb — pair any animal with 肉 to name its meat.
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.
肉 — pictograph of a slab of meat with ribs/striations
肉 is a pictograph originally depicting a piece of butchered meat, showing the outer cut and the striations of muscle or ribs inside. The character has meant 'flesh' or 'meat' since oracle bone times. As a radical it is usually written 月 on the left or bottom of characters relating to the body (e.g. 肝, 胃).