组织
zǔzhī · HSK 5
organization
🧬 组 = group/assemble + 织 = weave; assembled weaving = tissue/organization
组 (zǔ) means to assemble or group; 织 (zhī) means to weave. Together: woven-together groups, which covers both biological tissue (woven cells) and a human organization (assembled people).
组 — silk radical 糹 + 且 (zǔ phonetic)
组 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The silk radical 糹 signals the original meaning of weaving or braiding cords of silk threads together, while 且 supplies the sound zǔ. From 'braided cord' the meaning extended to 'group' or 'to organize,' since braiding bundles strands into one unit.
织 — silk radical 纟 + 只 (zhī, phonetic)
织 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 纟 (silk) signals the meaning, since the character originally referred to weaving threads of silk into cloth. The right side 只 hints at the pronunciation zhī. Today it broadly means 'to weave' or 'to knit.'