手当
てあて · teate · JLPT N1 · noun
allowance
手 — pictograph of a hand with five fingers
手 is a pictograph showing an open hand with fingers and a wrist. Early bronze and oracle bone forms clearly depict five splayed fingers, which simplified over time into the modern shape. It keeps its original meaning of 'hand' and also serves as a radical in many characters related to hand actions.
当 — small ⺌ + crown 冖 + hand 彐 (simplified from 當: 尚 + 田)
Originally written 當, combining 田 'field' with 尚 as a phonetic. The early sense was 'to match' or 'face' a field of equal value, extended to 'correspond to', 'ought to', and 'serve as'. The simplified form 当 streamlines the upper 尚 component.