纲要
gāng yào · HSK 7
outline
📋 纲 = main rope of a net + 要 = essential; the key threads holding it all together
纲 originally meant the thick headrope that gathers a fishing net's mesh, so 纲要 literally bundles the load-bearing strands of a topic — the outline or essential points everything else hangs from.
要 — west 覀 (top) + woman 女 (bottom)
Originally a pictograph of a woman with hands on her waist, meaning 'waist' (the original form of 腰). The top 覀 is a stylized depiction of the waist area, not the character for 'west'. Over time it was borrowed for the meaning 'to want, important', so 腰 (with 月 flesh radical) was created for the original 'waist' sense.