総理大臣
そうりだいじん · souridaijin · JLPT N2 · noun
Prime Minister
🏛️ 総理 (overall governance) + 大臣 (minister) = the minister who runs the whole government
総理 means overall management, and 大臣 means minister. Together they name the top minister who leads the entire national government.
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.'
大 — pictograph of a person with arms outstretched
大 is a pictograph showing a person standing with arms and legs spread wide. The outstretched arms suggest 'big' or 'great', extending from the literal image of a large stance to abstract meanings like important or grand. It is one of the oldest characters, found on oracle bones.