筹备
chóubèi · HSK 7
prepare
📋 CHOW BAY — chow down at the bay, but first you gotta prepare everything
筹 means to plan or arrange (think bamboo counting sticks for tallying plans), 备 means to equip or prepare. Together: making all the arrangements beforehand.
筹 — bamboo radical 竹 + 壽 (longevity, phonetic)
Originally written with the bamboo radical over 壽, 筹 depicted small bamboo sticks used as counting tallies or chips in ancient China. From this concrete sense of 'counting rod' it extended to mean 'to count, plan, or scheme,' as seen in modern words like 筹划 (plan) and 筹码 (chip, bargaining counter).