雇佣
gù yōng · HSK 7
to hire
💼🤝 雇 (hire) + 佣 (employ/servant) = formal word for hiring
雇 gù means to hire; 佣 yōng originally meant a hired servant. Together they form the formal verb for employing someone. Compare 雇主 gùzhǔ employer and 佣人 yōngrén servant.
雇 — door 户 + short-tailed bird 隹
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 隹 (bird) gives the meaning and 户 (door) hints at the sound, referring to a migratory bird (a type of cuckoo). The meaning later shifted by loan to 'hire' or 'employ', as in 雇佣, while the original bird sense faded from common use.