积
jī · HSK 7
accumulate
🌾 积 = 禾 grain + 责; grain piling up year after year = accumulate, store up
The 禾 (grain) radical on the left ties the word to harvests being gathered and stored. Sound-alike: jī echoes the start of 'accumulate' if you clip it to 'ji-' as the pile keeps growing.
积 — grain radical 禾 + 责 (phonetic)
积 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 禾 (grain) gives the meaning, while 责 supplies the sound. It originally referred to piling up harvested grain, which extended to the general sense of 'accumulate' or 'amass'. The simplified form replaced the older 積.