眼鏡

めがね · megane · JLPT N5 · noun

spectacles

眼鏡 — spectacles

👓 眼鏡 = eye (眼) + mirror/lens (鏡); me (目) is also the word for eye

The kanji literally say eye-mirror: 眼 is eye and 鏡 is a mirror or lens. The reading megane starts with me, the everyday Japanese word for eye, so the sound itself tells you this is something for the eyes.

眼 — eye radical 目 + 艮 (phonetic)
眼 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 目 means 'eye' and gives the meaning, while 艮 on the right supplies the sound. Originally referring to the eyeball, it broadened over time to mean 'eye' generally and, by extension, 'a hole' or 'key point'.

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