横断
おうだん · oudan · JLPT N3 · noun
crossing
🚶🦓 横断 = sideways (横) + cut (断): cutting across the road
横 means sideways or across, and 断 means to cut or sever. To 横断 is to cut across something from one side to the other. It's the word in 横断歩道 (おうだんほどう), the pedestrian or zebra crossing.
横 — wood radical 木 + 黄 (huáng, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 木 'wood' gives the meaning (a horizontal wooden bar across a gate), while 黄 supplies the sound. It originally meant the crossbar of a gate, then extended to 'horizontal' generally. The reading hèng later developed the sense of 'unruly' or 'unexpected'.
断 — thread 㡭 (silk bundle) + axe 斤
Originally written with 㡭 (entangled silk threads) on the left and 斤 (axe) on the right, depicting an axe cutting through bundled threads. From this concrete image of severing came the meanings 'to cut off,' 'to break,' and by extension 'to decide' or 'judge'—as in resolving a matter decisively.