说明书
shuōmíngshū · HSK 6
manual
📖🔧 shuo-ming-shu = explain + bright/clear + book — a book that clarifies
Each character does work: 说 (speak/explain) + 明 (bright/clear) + 书 (book). Together they literally mean a book that explains things clearly — an instruction manual or technical guide.
说 — speech radical 讠(言) + 兑
说 combines the speech radical 讠(言, 'words') with 兑, which acts as the phonetic component. The character originally meant 'to explain' or 'to speak,' and broadened to mean 'say' or 'talk.' The same graph is also read 'yuè' meaning 'pleased,' a sense later written 悦.
书 — hand 又 holding brush over 曰 (say/speak)
Originally a pictograph of a hand gripping a writing brush above a mouth or vessel, depicting the act of writing speech down. The traditional form 書 shows 聿 (brush) over 曰 (to say). Simplified 书 preserves the brush-in-hand shape, and the meaning extended from 'to write' to 'writing' and then 'book'.