代理
だいり · dairi · JLPT N3 · noun
deputy
🤝 代理 = substitute (代) + manage (理): someone who manages things in your place
代 means to replace or stand in for, as in 代わり (kawari, substitute). 理 means to manage or handle, as in 管理 (kanri, management). Together they mean the person who handles your affairs in your place. Sound hook: dairi sounds like dairy, so the deputy runs the dairy while the owner is away.
代 — person radical 亻 + 弋 (stake/dart, phonetic)
代 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 亻 (person) gives the meaning and 弋 supplies the sound. The original sense was one person taking the place of another, which broadened to 'substitute,' 'replace,' and then 'generation' or 'era' — successive groups of people replacing the previous.
理 — jade radical 玉/王 + village 里 (phonetic)
理 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the jade radical 王 (玉) on the left signals meaning, while 里 on the right gives the sound. It originally meant the natural veins or grain in a piece of jade, then extended to 'pattern,' 'order,' 'principle,' and finally the modern senses 'reason' and 'to manage.'