硬盘
yìng pán · HSK 7
disk
💽 硬 hard + 盘 plate/disk = hard disk; 盘 is the same plate as in 盘子 dish
硬 means hard or stiff, 盘 means plate, tray, or disk. Together they name the rigid spinning platter that stores data, contrasted with 软盘 soft + disk = floppy disk.
硬 — stone 石 + 更 (gēng, phonetic)
硬 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 石 'stone' gives the meaning—stones are hard—while the right side 更 originally suggested the pronunciation. From the literal sense of stone-hardness, 硬 extended to mean firm, stiff, or stubborn in both physical and figurative uses.
盘 — 舟 boat (phonetic) + 皿 dish (meaning)
Originally written 槃 with 木 wood, depicting a wooden tray or basin. The modern form 盘 keeps 皿 (dish/vessel) as the meaning component and uses 舟 as a phonetic hint. From 'flat tray' it extended to 'plate,' 'coil/wind around,' and 'examine.'