看护
kān hù · HSK 7
to look after
🩺 看 watch + 护 protect = to watch over and guard, i.e. to nurse
看 kān is the watching/looking-after part; 护 hù means to protect or guard (same 护 as in 保护 protect). Together: watch over plus guard equals nursing and caring for someone.
看 — hand 手 over eye 目
看 is an associative compound showing a hand (手, simplified to 龹) shading an eye (目), depicting someone shielding their eyes to look into the distance. From this concrete gesture it broadened to mean 'to look,' 'to watch,' and later 'to read' or 'to consider.'
护 — speech radical 讠 + 户 (door/household)
Originally written 護, combining the speech radical 言 with the phonetic 蒦. The simplified form 护 replaces the right side with 户 (door/household), suggesting guarding a home. The core meaning has long been 'to protect, defend, or shield.'