管理
かんり · kanri · JLPT N3 · noun
management
📋 管理 = oversee (管) + put in order (理): keep things running
管 first meant a bamboo pipe, then came to mean being in charge of something. 理 means reason or proper order. Put them together and you get to oversee and keep in order, which is management. The sound kanri also comes up in 管理人 (kanrinin), a building manager.
管 — bamboo radical 竹 + official 官 (phonetic)
Originally a pictograph of a bamboo tube or pipe, written with the bamboo radical 竹 on top. The lower component 官 supplies the sound. From 'bamboo pipe' it extended to 'tube,' then to 'manage' or 'control' — since pipes channel and regulate flow, the meaning shifted toward administration.
理 — jade radical 玉/王 + village 里 (phonetic)
理 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the jade radical 王 (玉) on the left signals meaning, while 里 on the right gives the sound. It originally meant the natural veins or grain in a piece of jade, then extended to 'pattern,' 'order,' 'principle,' and finally the modern senses 'reason' and 'to manage.'