再来週
さらいしゅう · saraishuu · JLPT N4 · noun
the week after next
📅 再来週 = again + coming + week: the week that comes again after next week
来週 (raishuu) is next week: coming + week. Adding 再 (sa, again) pushes it one step further, so the coming week comes once more. Same pattern as 再来月 (month after next) and 再来年 (year after next).
再 — top 一 + 冂 frame + 土-like inner strokes
再 originally depicted a stack of fish or piled objects, suggesting accumulation or repetition. Over time it came to mean 'again' or 'once more,' emphasizing a second occurrence of an action. The modern form is stylized and no longer clearly pictographic.
来 — pictograph of a wheat plant with grain heads
来 originally depicted a stalk of wheat with drooping grain heads, and meant 'wheat' in oracle bone script. It was later borrowed phonetically to write the unrelated verb 'to come,' which became its dominant meaning. The original 'wheat' sense was taken over by 麥 (now 麦).