补救
bǔ jiù · HSK 7
to remedy
🩹 patch (补) + rescue (救) = fix what went wrong
Bǔ sounds like boo as in a boo-boo. You patch up your boo-boo and jiù (rescue) the outcome — that is how you remedy a mistake.
补 — clothes radical 衤 + 甫 (phonetic)
补 is a phono-semantic compound. The left side 衤 (clothes radical) gives the meaning, originally referring to patching or mending clothes. The right side 甫 supplies the sound. From 'mend a garment' the meaning broadened to 'repair, supplement, make up for'.
救 — 求 (seek/phonetic) + 攵 (strike/action)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 攵 (a hand holding a stick) gives the action sense of intervening or stopping, while 求 supplies the sound 'jiu'. Originally meaning to halt or stop something bad, it extended to 'rescue, save, aid'.