薪水
xīnshuǐ · HSK 6
screw
💰🪵 firewood + water = salary (ancient pay was literally fuel and water)
薪 means firewood, 水 means water. Officials in ancient China received allowances for firewood and water as part of their compensation. The compound fossilized into the modern word for salary.
水 — pictograph of flowing water
水 is a pictograph depicting a stream of flowing water, with the central line representing the main current and the side strokes showing splashing droplets or ripples. In oracle bone script it was drawn even more clearly as a wavy vertical line with branches. It retains its original meaning of 'water' and also serves as a radical, often appearing in the compressed form 氵.