乾杯
かんぱい · kanpai · JLPT N2 · expression
Cheers! (a toast)
🥂 乾杯 = 乾 (dry, empty) + 杯 (cup): a toast where you empty your cup
乾 (kan) means dry or empty, and 杯 (hai) means cup. Japanese toasts traditionally call for drinking the whole cup at once.
杯 — wood radical 木 + 不 (phonetic)
杯 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The 木 radical signals wood, since ancient cups were carved from wood, while 不 hints at the sound. Originally written 桮, it came to mean any cup or glass regardless of material.