男朋友
nánpéngyǒu · HSK 1
boyfriend
👦 男 (man) + 朋友 (friend) = male friend = boyfriend
男 means male/man and 朋友 means friend. Together they form 男朋友, the standard word for boyfriend. The parallel word for girlfriend is 女朋友, swapping 男 (male) for 女 (female).
男 — field 田 + strength/plow 力
男 is a compound ideograph combining 田 (field) above 力 (strength, originally a picture of a plow). It depicted the one who works the fields with a plow, i.e. a male laborer, and by extension came to mean 'man' or 'male' in general.
nán péng you · HSK 2
boyfriend
👦💕 男朋友 = 男 (man) + 朋友 (friend) — literally 'man-friend'
男 means male/man and 朋友 means friend, so 男朋友 is a male friend in the romantic sense: boyfriend. The parallel 女朋友 (nǚ péngyou) means girlfriend.
男 — field 田 + strength/plow 力
男 is a compound ideograph combining 田 (field) above 力 (strength, originally a picture of a plow). It depicted the one who works the fields with a plow, i.e. a male laborer, and by extension came to mean 'man' or 'male' in general.