事務所
じむしょ · jimusho · JLPT N4 · noun
office
🏢 事務所 = matter + duty + place: the place where business duties get done
事務 (jimu) means office work or clerical business: 事 is matter/affair, 務 is duty/task. 所 (sho) means place, the same suffix as in 場所 (basho, place). So jimusho is literally the business-duties place.
事 — hand 又 holding a banner/tablet on a pole
Originally a pictograph of a hand (又) grasping a pole or ceremonial banner used by an official, depicting the act of conducting court business. From this it came to mean 'affair, matter, business, service.' It shares an ancient origin with 史 (scribe) and 吏 (official).
所 — door 戶 (left) + axe 斤 (right)
Originally a sound: an axe (斤) chopping wood near a door (戶), with 戶 also hinting at the pronunciation. Over time it was borrowed to mean 'place' or 'location,' and later became a grammatical particle nominalizing verbs ('that which…'). The concrete 'chopping' sense faded entirely.