商売
しょうばい · shoubai · JLPT N3 · noun
business
🏪💰 商売 = 商 (trade, merchant) + 売 (sell): trading and selling = business
商 is the merchant character, also in 商品 (goods) and 商人 (merchant). 売 means sell, as in 売る (uru); here it takes the reading bai, as in 売買 (baibai, buying and selling). Sound hook: shoubai is how you show and buy.
商 — 亠 lid + 丷 + 冏 window/enclosure
In oracle bone script 商 depicted a raised platform or altar-like structure, and it served as the name of the Shang dynasty and its capital region. The modern components are a late simplification of that pictograph and carry no separate meaning. The sense 'trade, merchant' arose later, traditionally linked to Shang people who travelled to buy and sell after their dynasty fell.