黑客
hēi kè · HSK 7
hacker (computing) (loanword)
💻 hēi kè sounds like the English hacker it was borrowed from; 黑 black + 客 guest
黑客 is a loanword: the syllables hēi-kè were chosen to echo English hacker. The characters literally read black (黑) + guest/visitor (客), a fitting label for an uninvited intruder in a computer system.
黑 — top 里 over 灬 (fire) — soot from flame
Originally a pictograph of a person whose face was blackened by smoke from a fire, with the lower 灬 representing flames and the upper part showing soot stains. Over time the form was regularized into the modern shape, and the meaning broadened from 'soot-blackened' to the general color black.