待合室
まちあいしつ · machiaishitsu · JLPT N2 · noun
lounge
🪑 待 wait + 合 meet + 室 room: a room where you wait to meet someone or be called
待ち合わせ (machiawase) means arranging to meet, so 待合室 is the room where people wait for that meeting or for their turn at a clinic or station.
待 — chì 彳 (step) + 寺 sì (temple/phonetic)
待 combines the 'step' radical 彳, suggesting movement or a path, with 寺, which serves as the phonetic component. Originally it conveyed the idea of stopping along a road, which extended to 'waiting.' Over time it also took on related meanings like 'to treat' or 'to deal with' someone.
合 — 乛 (lid/roof) + 口 (mouth)
Originally a pictograph of a lidded vessel — a cover (亼) closing over an opening (口) — giving the core sense of 'come together, join, fit.' From 'fit/match' it extended to 'combine, unite, agree' and to measure-word uses. The reading hé reflects this 'joining' meaning.
室 — roof 宀 + arrive 至
A semantic compound: 宀 (roof/house) over 至 (to arrive). The image is a place one arrives at and stays in — an inner room. From 'inner chamber' the meaning broadened to 'room' generally, and by extension to specialized rooms like an office or laboratory.