赔偿
péicháng · HSK 5
compensate
💰 赔 (compensate, money radical) + 偿 (repay) = pay back what you owe
赔 has 贝 (shell/money radical) on the left, marking it as money-related. 偿 means to repay or fulfill. Together: compensate by paying back. Common in legal contexts like damages or restitution.
赔 — shell radical 贝 + 㫊 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The shell radical 贝 signals money or wealth, since cowrie shells were ancient currency, while 㫊 (péi) suggests the sound. Originally meant to compensate or pay back a loss, and still carries the core sense of indemnifying or losing money.