苦力
kǔ lì · HSK 7
coolie
⛏️ 苦 bitter + 力 strength = bitter labor; English coolie comes straight from kǔ lì
The two characters literally stack as 苦 (bitter) plus 力 (strength/effort), giving bitter toil. The colonial English word coolie was borrowed from this same kǔ lì sound, so the loanword and its parts reinforce each other.
苦 — grass radical 艹 + 古 (old)
Originally referred to a bitter-tasting plant, with the grass radical 艹 indicating its botanical nature and 古 providing the phonetic element. The meaning extended from the literal bitter taste to figurative senses of hardship, suffering, and painful effort.
力 — pictograph of a plow or arm muscle
力 originated as a pictograph of an ancient plow, the main tool requiring physical exertion in early agriculture. Some scholars also see it as a flexed arm showing muscle. From this concrete image it broadened to mean 'strength, power, force, effort'.