画册
huà cè · HSK 7
album
🖼️📖 画册 = 画 (painting) + 册 (booklet/volume)
册 originally drew bound bamboo slips, so it means a bound volume or booklet. Pair it with 画 (painting/picture) and you get a bound book of pictures: a picture album.
画 — hand 一 + field 田 + frame 凵
Originally a pictograph of a hand holding a brush drawing boundaries around a field, depicting the act of marking out land. The top once showed a brush (聿), and 田 represents the field being divided. Over time it came to mean 'to draw, paint' and also 'a stroke' in characters.
册 — two bamboo strips 竹 bound by a cord
册 is a pictograph of ancient bamboo or wooden writing slips threaded together with a cord, the earliest form of a book in China. The original meaning was a bound bundle of slips, which broadened to mean a volume, register, or booklet. Modern uses like 书册 (book) and 注册 (to register) preserve this sense.