紧缩
jǐn suō · HSK 7
to reduce
🔩 紧 tight + 缩 shrink/contract = tighten up, cut back (an economy)
紧 means tight or taut and 缩 means to shrink or contract. Together they name an economy pulling itself tighter and smaller: cutting spending, curtailing credit. The English term tightening lines up word-for-word with 紧缩.
紧 — 臣 minister + 又 hand on top + 糸 silk below
Originally written 緊, this character combines 臤 (a hand 又 grasping firmly, with 臣 as phonetic) over 糸 'silk thread'. The image is of silk threads pulled taut by hand, giving the core meaning 'tight, taut'. From there it extended to 'urgent' and 'pressing'.
缩 — silk radical 糹 + 宿 (lodge, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The silk radical 糹 carries the meaning, since shrinking and tightening were associated with drawing in cords or fabric. The right side 宿 (sù) supplies the sound. The original sense of binding cloth tight extended to the modern meaning 'to shrink' or 'contract.'