整理
せいり · seiri · JLPT N3 · noun
sort
🗂️ 整理 = orderly 整 + put in order 理: making things neat
整 means whole or orderly, as in 整数 (whole number). 理 means reason, or managing something by its natural grain, as in 管理 (management). Put them together and you get sorting things into their proper order. Careful: 生理 (physiology) is also read seiri.
整 — 束 bundle + 攵 tap/strike + 正 correct/upright
A compound character combining 敕 (to arrange, with 束 'bundle' and 攵 'strike/action') over 正 ('upright, correct'). The image is of striking a bundle into proper alignment, giving the meaning 'to put in order, arrange neatly.' From this came senses of 'whole, complete, tidy.'
理 — jade radical 玉/王 + village 里 (phonetic)
理 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the jade radical 王 (玉) on the left signals meaning, while 里 on the right gives the sound. It originally meant the natural veins or grain in a piece of jade, then extended to 'pattern,' 'order,' 'principle,' and finally the modern senses 'reason' and 'to manage.'