足智多谋
zú zhì duō moú · HSK 7
resourceful
🧠♟️ 足 enough + 智 wisdom + 多 many + 谋 schemes = brimming with clever plans
Literally enough-wisdom-many-schemes: someone who never runs short of smart plans. 智 is the brain word (intelligence) and 谋 means scheme or strategy, so the four pile up into a person stuffed with tactics.
足 — top 口 (mouth/enclosure) + bottom 止 (foot)
Originally a pictograph of a leg and foot, with the upper square representing the knee or shin and the lower part 止 depicting the foot itself. It primarily means 'foot' and by extension 'sufficient' or 'enough,' a meaning shift likely from the idea of standing firmly or having a solid footing.
多 — two 夕 (evening) stacked
多 originally depicted two pieces of meat (夕, a variant of 肉) stacked together, suggesting abundance. Over time it was reanalyzed as two 'evenings' piled up — many evenings meaning many days, hence 'many, much'. The doubling itself conveys quantity.