钟头
zhōngtóu · HSK 6
hour
⏰ 钟 clock + 头 head — one clock-head of time is one hour
钟 means clock or bell, 头 means head. Together they form the colloquial word for an hour — one full cycle of the clock face. The formal synonym 小时 (small-time) is more common in writing, but 钟头 is everyday speech.
钟 — metal radical 钅 + child 童 (phonetic)
Originally a pictograph of a hanging bell, 钟 is now a semantic-phonetic compound: 钅 (metal) gives the meaning, while 童 hints at the sound. It is the simplified form merging two traditional characters, 鐘 (bell, clock) and 鍾 (cup, to concentrate).
头 — 页 (head/page) + 豆 (bean, phonetic)
The traditional form 頭 combines 頁 (xié), meaning 'head', with 豆 (dòu) as the phonetic component. 頁 itself originally depicted a person with an emphasized head. The simplified form 头 is a modern shorthand that replaces 豆+頁 with a simpler shape while keeping the same meaning of 'head' or 'top'.