水道
すいどう · suidou · JLPT N4 · noun
service
🚰 水道 = water (水 sui) + road (道 dou): the road water travels
水 is water, read sui as in 水曜日 (Wednesday, water day). 道 is road or way, read dou as in 柔道 (judo, the gentle way). A road for water is the piped supply to your tap, so 水道 means the water service or water line.
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.
道 — 辶 (walk) + 首 (head)
Originally a compound of 辶 'walk/movement' and 首 'head', depicting a path one walks while looking ahead. The literal sense 'road, way' extended metaphorically to 'method, doctrine, the Way (Dao)'. This philosophical meaning became central in Daoist and Confucian thought.