赤字
chì zì · HSK 7
deficit
📉🔴 red + character — losses inked in red, so red writing = deficit
In both East Asian and Western bookkeeping, debts are recorded in red ink. 赤 (red) + 字 (character) = red-ink entries, i.e. a financial deficit.
字 — roof 宀 + child 子
Originally depicted a child 子 under a roof 宀, suggesting birth or rearing a child in the home. The meaning later extended to 'to give birth, nurture' and then to 'written character', since characters were seen as offspring derived from earlier pictographs.