生词
shēng cí · HSK 2
word that is unfamiliar or not yet studied
📖 生 (raw/new) + 词 (word) = a word that's still 'raw' to you
生 means raw, unripe, or unfamiliar (same character as in 生肉 raw meat). Pair it with 词 (word) and you get a word that hasn't been 'cooked' into your memory yet — i.e. vocabulary you haven't studied.
生 — sprout 屮 above earth 土
Originally a pictograph showing a young plant sprouting from the ground, with 屮 (a sprout) above 土 (earth). The core meaning is 'to be born, to grow, to live,' which extends to 'raw, unripe, unfamiliar.' The modern form has simplified the sprout shape but preserves the image of new growth emerging from soil.
词 — speech radical 讠 (言) + 司 sī (phonetic)
词 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (simplified form of 言 'speech/words') gives the meaning, marking it as something related to language. The right side 司 supplies the sound, originally close to 'sī/cí'. Together it came to mean 'word', 'phrase', or a lyric/poem form.