枚数
まいすう · maisuu · JLPT N2 · noun
number of sheets
📄🎫 枚 = counter for flat things + 数 = number, so 枚数 = how many flat things
Japanese uses 枚 to count thin, flat objects such as sheets of paper, tickets, and shirts. 数 is the general word for count. Together they ask how many flat items there are.
枚 — wood 木 + strike 攵
枚 combines 木 (tree/wood) with 攵 (a hand holding a stick), originally depicting a small wooden stick or twig broken from a tree. From this concrete sense it became a measure word for small, slender objects like coins, badges, or pins. The stick meaning is largely archaic today.
数 — 婁 (lóu, phonetic) + 攵 (action radical)
数 is a phono-semantic compound. The right side 攵 (a hand holding a stick) suggests an action, originally tallying or counting by striking marks. The left side 婁 supplies the sound. Over time the meaning broadened from 'to count' to 'number' and 'several'.