刻む
きざむ · kizamu · JLPT N2 · verb-godan
to engrave
🔪 刻 = notch or carve; kizamu cuts many small notches, so mince or engrave
The kanji 刻 means a notch or tick mark, as on a clock (時刻). Mincing food and engraving stone both leave many small cuts, which is why 刻む covers both meanings.
刻 — knife radical 刂 + 亥 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 亥 supplies the sound, while the knife radical 刂 on the right gives the meaning, since 刻 originally referred to carving or engraving with a blade. From 'to carve' it extended to marking time notches on a sundial, hence the modern sense of 'a moment' or 'quarter hour'.