美化
měihuà · HSK 7
beautify
💄 美化 = 美 beautiful + 化 -ify/transform = make beautiful, beautify
化 is the verb-forming suffix like English -ify or -ize (it turns a quality into an action). So 美 beautiful plus 化 gives beautify or embellish, the same way 现代化 means modernize.
美 — sheep 羊 on top + big 大 below
美 is traditionally explained as a pictograph of a person (大) wearing a large sheep or ram's-head ornament, suggesting beauty through adornment. An alternative reading takes 羊 (sheep) over 大 (big) to mean 'a big, fat sheep'—seen as delicious and pleasing, hence 'beautiful, good'.
化 — person 亻 + spoon/upside-down person 匕
化 is an associative compound showing a standing person 亻 next to 匕, originally a depiction of a person turned upside-down. Together they suggest a figure transforming from one state to another, giving the core meaning 'change' or 'transform'. The character later extended to senses like 'convert', 'influence', and the noun suffix '-ization'.