采矿
cǎi kuàng · HSK 7
mining
⛏️🪨 采矿 = gather + ore — collecting minerals from rock
采 means to pick or gather, 矿 means ore or mineral deposit. The word literally says what miners do: gather ore out of the ground.
采 — hand 爫 (claw) on top of tree 木
采 is an ideographic character showing a hand (爫) reaching down over a tree (木), depicting picking fruit or leaves. Its original meaning was 'to pluck' or 'gather,' which extended to 'collect' and 'select.' Later it also took on the sense of 'colorful' or 'variegated,' a meaning now often written as 彩.
矿 — stone radical 石 + 广 phonetic
矿 is the simplified form of 礦. The 石 (stone) radical signals the meaning—rocks and minerals dug from the earth—while 广 serves as a simplified phonetic component. Originally it referred to raw ore, and by extension came to mean a mine or mineral deposit.