见识
jiàn shi · HSK 7
knowledge and experience
👁️🧠 见识 = 见 see + 识 know: what you have seen and come to know
见 is to see or perceive; 识 is to know or recognize. Together they mean the knowledge and experience you gather from seeing the world, and as a verb, to broaden that store by encountering new things.
见 — eye 目 over legs 儿 (人)
见 (traditional 見) is a pictograph of a person 儿 with a large eye 目 on top, emphasizing the act of seeing. The original meaning 'to see' broadened over time to include 'to meet,' 'to perceive,' and 'view/opinion.' The simplified form 见 keeps the same structure in cursive shorthand.
识 — speech radical 讠 + 只 zhī (phonetic)
识 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The speech radical 讠 (言) signals meaning related to words or knowing, while 只 hints at the sound. Originally written 識 with 戠, it meant 'to recognize' or 'know'; later it broadened to include knowledge and awareness.