船员
chuányuán · HSK 6
sailor
⚓ 船 (boat) + 员 (member) = boat member = crew
船 chuán is boat; 员 yuán means member or staff (same 员 as in 演员 actor, 服务员 waiter). Stack them: a member of the boat's staff, i.e. a sailor or crew.
船 — boat radical 舟 + 㕣 (phonetic)
船 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 舟 depicts a boat and gives the meaning, while the right side 㕣 originally suggested the sound. Together they refer to a ship or vessel, a meaning that has stayed stable since early seal script.
员 — mouth 口 + shell/money 贝 (貝)
Originally a pictograph of a round bronze tripod vessel, with 口 depicting its round opening and 鼎 (later simplified to 貝/贝) showing the vessel itself. The original sense was 'round,' now written 圓/圆. It was borrowed to mean 'member' or 'person in a role,' which became its main modern meaning.