词典
cídiǎn · HSK 2
dictionary
📖 词典 = words + canon/standard book
词 means word or term; 典 means standard work or canon. Together they name the canonical book of words — a dictionary. 典 also appears in 经典 (classic) and 字典 (character dictionary).
词 — speech radical 讠 (言) + 司 sī (phonetic)
词 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (simplified form of 言 'speech/words') gives the meaning, marking it as something related to language. The right side 司 supplies the sound, originally close to 'sī/cí'. Together it came to mean 'word', 'phrase', or a lyric/poem form.