蛇口
じゃぐち · jaguchi · JLPT N2 · noun
faucet
🚰 蛇口 = snake + mouth: a tap is a spout that releases water like a mouth
蛇 (ja) means snake and 口 (guchi) means mouth. Faucet spouts are often curved like a snake's head, so the water comes out of a snake's mouth.
蛇 — insect radical 虫 + 它 (phonetic)
Originally 它 was a pictograph of a snake, showing its head and coiled body. When 它 was borrowed for the pronoun 'it', the insect/reptile radical 虫 was added to 它 to create 蛇, preserving the original snake meaning. So 虫 gives the category (creature) and 它 supplies the sound.
口 — pictograph of an open mouth
口 is one of the oldest pictographs in Chinese, originally drawn as a simple outline of an open mouth. Its core meaning 'mouth' extended naturally to 'opening' or 'entrance', as in 入口 (entrance). It also serves as a common radical in characters related to speech, eating, or apertures.