迎合
yíng hé · HSK 7
to cater to
🤝 迎 welcome + 合 match = welcome-and-match whatever someone wants, i.e. pander to them
迎 is to greet or welcome, 合 is to fit or match. To cater to someone is to greet their wishes and match yourself to them, bending to fit their taste rather than your own.
迎 — walk radical 辶 + 卬 (phonetic)
迎 is a phono-semantic compound: 辶 (walk/movement) gives the meaning of going toward someone, while 卬 supplies the sound (close to yíng). 卬 originally depicted a person looking up, reinforcing the idea of facing or greeting. Together the character means 'to welcome' or 'meet'.
合 — 乛 (lid/roof) + 口 (mouth)
Originally a pictograph of a lidded vessel — a cover (亼) closing over an opening (口) — giving the core sense of 'come together, join, fit.' From 'fit/match' it extended to 'combine, unite, agree' and to measure-word uses. The reading hé reflects this 'joining' meaning.