打合せ
うちあわせ · uchiawase · JLPT N2 · noun
meeting
🥁📅 打 strike + 合せ match up: tapping out a beat so everyone is in sync
Said to come from gagaku court music, where percussion struck the beat so the other players could align before a performance. Today it is any meeting held to sync up plans: uchi (打ち, strike) + awase (合わせ, fit together, from 合う).
打 — hand radical 扌 + nail 丁
打 combines the hand radical 扌 (action with the hand) with 丁 (originally a nail), suggesting striking or hitting with the hand. 丁 also serves as a phonetic hint in older readings. The meaning broadened from 'to strike' to a general verb for many hand-based actions, like 打电话 'make a phone call'.
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.