门铃
mén líng · HSK 7
doorbell
🔔🚪 门铃 = 门 (door/gate) + 铃 (bell) = door-bell
门 mén is the door or gate; 铃 líng is a small bell. Stack them and you get the bell at the door — a doorbell. The 铃 character carries 金 (metal) on its left, the stuff bells are cast from.
门 — pictograph of double-leaf gate
门 is a pictograph showing a pair of swinging doors hung in a doorway, originally drawn as 門 in oracle-bone script with two clear leaves. The simplified form 门 keeps the same outline with fewer strokes. It still means 'gate' or 'door' and serves as a phonetic in characters like 们, 问, and 闷.
铃 — metal radical 钅 + order/command 令
A semantic-phonetic compound: 钅 (metal) signals the meaning, while 令 (lìng) hints at the sound, shifted to líng. Originally referred to small metal bells that ring when shaken, and by extension any bell-like object.