名刺
めいし · meishi · JLPT N3 · noun
card
🪪 名刺 = name + slip: in old China, 刺 was a bamboo calling card
刺 normally means thorn or to pierce, but in Han-dynasty China it also meant a wooden or bamboo slip carved with a visitor's name and handed over at the door. Japanese kept that word for the modern business card: a name slip.
名 — evening 夕 + mouth 口
A compound ideograph: in the dark of evening (夕), one cannot recognize others by sight, so the mouth (口) calls out a name to identify oneself. The original sense of 'name' broadened to include reputation, fame, and a measure word for people.
刺 — thorn 朿 (phonetic) + knife 刂 (meaning)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The knife radical 刂 carries the meaning of cutting or piercing, while 朿 (a thorn) supplies both the sound and reinforces the idea of something sharp. Original sense was 'to stab' or 'pierce', later extended to 'thorn', 'sting', and figuratively 'to criticize sharply'.