要么
yào me · HSK 6
either one or the other
↔️ yào me sounds like YOU MUST — pick one or the other, you must!
要 means want or must, 么 is a question particle. Together they force a choice: you MUST pick this OR that. Either one or the other, no middle ground.
要 — west 覀 (top) + woman 女 (bottom)
Originally a pictograph of a woman with hands on her waist, meaning 'waist' (the original form of 腰). The top 覀 is a stylized depiction of the waist area, not the character for 'west'. Over time it was borrowed for the meaning 'to want, important', so 腰 (with 月 flesh radical) was created for the original 'waist' sense.