上手
じょうず · jouzu · JLPT N5 · na-adj
skillful
👆🖐️ 上手 = upper + hand: having the upper hand at a skill
上 (jou) means up or above, 手 (zu, hand) stands for skill. Someone whose hand is above the rest is skillful. English says the same thing: to have the upper hand. Its opposite is 下手 (heta), lower hand, meaning bad at.
上 — horizontal line above a baseline
上 is an indicative character (指事): a short stroke placed above a longer reference line shows the concept of 'above' or 'up'. The earliest oracle-bone forms used two horizontal lines for this; the modern shape added a vertical stroke for clarity. The core meaning of 'upper, above, to ascend' has stayed stable for millennia.
手 — pictograph of a hand with five fingers
手 is a pictograph showing an open hand with fingers and a wrist. Early bronze and oracle bone forms clearly depict five splayed fingers, which simplified over time into the modern shape. It keeps its original meaning of 'hand' and also serves as a radical in many characters related to hand actions.