男
おとこ · otoko · JLPT N5 · noun
man
👨 男 = 田 rice field + 力 power: the one with strength in the fields
Etymology: the kanji stacks 田 (rice field) over 力 (power, strength), the one who labours in the fields. Sound hook: otoko has three o's, like a deep-voiced oh-oh-oh. The on-reading dan appears in 男性 (dansei, male).
男 — field 田 + strength/plow 力
男 is a compound ideograph combining 田 (field) above 力 (strength, originally a picture of a plow). It depicted the one who works the fields with a plow, i.e. a male laborer, and by extension came to mean 'man' or 'male' in general.