视力
shìlì · HSK 7
seeing
👁️ 视 see + 力 power = the power of seeing, your eyesight
视 means look or see; 力 means power or strength. Together they name the strength of your sight — how sharp your vision is, the thing an eye chart measures.
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'.