水泳
すいえい · suiei · JLPT N4 · noun
swimming
🏊 水泳 = water (水) + swim (泳)
水 sui is the Sino-Japanese reading of water, as in 水曜日 (Wednesday, water-day). 泳 ei means swim and is the same kanji as in 泳ぐ (oyogu, to swim). Its left side is the three-drop water radical, so water appears twice in the word.
水 — pictograph of flowing water
水 is a pictograph depicting a stream of flowing water, with the central line representing the main current and the side strokes showing splashing droplets or ripples. In oracle bone script it was drawn even more clearly as a wavy vertical line with branches. It retains its original meaning of 'water' and also serves as a radical, often appearing in the compressed form 氵.