红色
hóngsè · HSK 2
red color
🔴 红 = red + 色 = color; together literally 'red color'
红 (hóng) means red on its own; 色 (sè) means color or hue. Chinese often pairs a specific color word with 色 to name the color category, like 蓝色 blue, 黄色 yellow, 黑色 black.
红 — silk radical 糹/纟 + work 工 (phonetic)
红 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The silk radical 糹 (simplified 纟) signals the meaning, since the character originally referred to a kind of pink or light-red dyed silk. The right side 工 supplies the sound. Over time the meaning broadened from the dye color to 'red' in general.
色 — person 人 (top) + kneeling figure 卩 (bottom)
Originally a pictograph showing one person above another, traditionally interpreted as depicting facial expressions or intimate posture between two people. The earliest meaning was 'facial expression' or 'countenance,' which extended to 'appearance' and eventually 'color' (the look of things). The 'shǎi' reading is a colloquial variant used for everyday color words.