预计
yūjì · HSK 3
predict
🔮📅 预计 = 预 (advance/beforehand) + 计 (calculate/plan)
预 means 'in advance' (as in 预习 preview), and 计 means 'to calculate or plan' (as in 计算). Together: to calculate in advance — i.e. estimate, predict, or expect.
计 — speech radical 讠 (言) + ten 十
计 is a semantic compound: 言 'speech/words' plus 十 'ten', suggesting counting or reckoning aloud. The original sense was to calculate or tally numbers, which extended to 'plan, scheme, plot' — any kind of mental reckoning. Modern uses like 计算 (calculate) and 计划 (plan) preserve both threads.