万歳
ばんざい · banzai · JLPT N2 · noun
Long live ~!
🎌 万 (ten thousand) + 歳 (years) = a wish for ten thousand years of life
The cheer 万歳 breaks into 万, meaning ten thousand, and 歳, meaning years. Shouting it wishes someone or something a very long life, like Long live ~!
万 — top 一 + 𠃌 (hook) over 丿
Originally a pictograph of a scorpion, used in oracle bone script. It was borrowed phonetically to mean 'ten thousand' and the original scorpion sense was lost. The traditional form 萬 shows the scorpion more clearly; 万 is a simplified variant long used as a common shorthand.