入学
にゅうがくする · nyuugakusuru · JLPT N4 · noun
university
🏫🎒 入学 = enter (入) + learning (学): entering a school
入 means to enter, and 学 means study or learning, as in 学校 (school) and 学生 (student). Read nyuu + gaku; adding する makes the verb to enrol. Its opposite is 卒業 (graduation).
入 — single pictograph, two slanting strokes
入 is a pictograph showing an arrowhead or pointed entrance, with two strokes converging downward to suggest something going inward. The original sense was 'to enter,' and it still carries that meaning today. It contrasts visually with 人 (person), where the strokes cross differently at the top.
学 — hands 𦥑 + roof 冖 + child 子
Originally 學, depicting two hands manipulating something (often interpreted as counting rods or the 爻 trigram symbols) under a roof, with a child 子 below — a child learning under instruction. The simplified form 学 replaces the top with a stylized 龸. Core meaning has always been 'to study, learn'.