学力
がくりょく · gakuryoku · JLPT N2 · noun
knowledge
📚 学 (study) + 力 (power) = study power: the power to learn and know
学 means study or learning and 力 means power or strength. Together, 学力 is academic ability, the power that comes from learning and knowledge.
学 — hands 𦥑 + roof 冖 + child 子
Originally 學, depicting two hands manipulating something (often interpreted as counting rods or the 爻 trigram symbols) under a roof, with a child 子 below — a child learning under instruction. The simplified form 学 replaces the top with a stylized 龸. Core meaning has always been 'to study, learn'.
力 — pictograph of a plow or arm muscle
力 originated as a pictograph of an ancient plow, the main tool requiring physical exertion in early agriculture. Some scholars also see it as a flexed arm showing muscle. From this concrete image it broadened to mean 'strength, power, force, effort'.