筹措
choú cuò · HSK 7
to raise (money)
💰 CHOW on CUTs of budget — scraping funds together from every source
筹 (chóu) means to plan or arrange; 措 (cuò) means to manage or handle. Together they mean to arrange and manage funds — raising money by pulling resources from multiple directions.
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).