印刷
いんさつ · insatsu · JLPT N3 · noun
printing
🖨️ 印刷 = stamp + brush: ink a block, brush paper over it
印 (in) means seal or stamp and 刷 (satsu) means brush or scrub. Early woodblock printing worked that way: ink the carved block, lay paper on it and brush the back. The same 印 shows up in 印鑑 (inkan, a personal seal).
印 — hand 爪 (claw) + kneeling person 卩
Originally a pictograph showing a hand pressing down on a kneeling figure, depicting the act of stamping or sealing. The meaning extended from 'to press a seal' to the seal itself, and then to 'print' or 'imprint' in modern usage.
刷 — 刂 knife + 㕞 (brush, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 㕞 originally depicted a brush or scrubber and supplies the sound, while the knife radical 刂 hints at scraping or sweeping action. The character came to mean 'to brush, scrub, or swipe,' later extending to modern senses like swiping a card or binge-watching.