手洗い
てあらい · tearai · JLPT N2 · noun
public toilet
🧼 手洗い = hand + washing: a polite euphemism, like saying you are going to wash your hands
Japanese speakers often say they are going to wash their hands instead of naming the toilet. The compound 手 (hand) + 洗い (washing) gives the polite word for restroom.
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.
洗 — water radical 氵 + 先 (xiān)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The water radical 氵 indicates the meaning (washing with water), while 先 supplies the sound, originally close to xiǎn/xǐ. The character has long meant 'to wash' or 'rinse,' and by extension 'to cleanse' or 'wash away.'