油
あぶら · abura · JLPT N3 · noun
oil
🛢️ abura sounds like a blur-a: oil on a lens makes everything a blur
Kanji split: 氵 (the water radical, used for liquids) + 由 (a sound hint, read yu in 油 as yu). So 油 is a liquid. Read alone, the kun reading is abura, as in 油絵 (aburae, oil painting).
油 — water radical 氵 + 由 (yóu, phonetic)
油 is a phono-semantic compound. The 氵 radical signals a liquid, while 由 supplies the sound. Originally referring to a river name, it was extended to mean oil or fat — any thick, flowing liquid — which became its dominant modern sense.