お金
おかね · okane · JLPT N5 · noun
money
💴🪙 お金 = polite o + kane (metal, gold): honourable metal
金 means gold or metal, the stuff coins were made of, so kane came to mean money. The お in front is the polite prefix, the same one in お茶 (ocha, tea). Sound hook: oh, kah-neh, cash I need.
金 — roof 亼 + two dots (metal nuggets) + earth 土
Originally a pictograph of metal nuggets buried in the earth beneath a covering, with the two dots representing pieces of ore. It first meant 'metal' broadly, then narrowed to 'gold' as the most precious metal, and by extension 'money'.