看護
かんご · kango · JLPT N1 · noun
nursing
🩺 看 = watch over + 護 = protect: a nurse watches over and protects patients
看 means watch and 護 means guard or protect. Together they describe nursing: keeping constant watch over patients and protecting their health.
看 — hand 手 over eye 目
看 is an associative compound showing a hand (手, simplified to 龹) shading an eye (目), depicting someone shielding their eyes to look into the distance. From this concrete gesture it broadened to mean 'to look,' 'to watch,' and later 'to read' or 'to consider.'