牢记
láo jì · HSK 7
to keep in mind
🔒📝 牢 firm/secure + 记 record = lock a memory down firmly so it cannot slip out
牢 also means a pen or fold that holds animals fast, so it carries the sense of firmly secured. Pair it with 记 to record, and 牢记 is to record something so securely it stays put.
牢 — roof 宀 + ox 牛
Originally a pictograph showing an ox (牛) penned under a roof or enclosure (宀), depicting a livestock pen or stable. From 'animal pen' it extended to mean 'prison' (a place of confinement) and then 'firm, secure, sturdy' — the sense of something solidly enclosed.
记 — speech radical 讠 (言) + self 己
记 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (the 'speech' radical, simplified from 言) signals meaning related to words or recording, while 己 ('self') supplies the sound. Together it conveys writing down or remembering — noting things in words.