西
にし · nishi · JLPT N5 · noun
west
🌇 nishi: the sun says its last knee-shee goodbye in the west
Etymology hook: one traditional account ties nishi to the direction where the sun departs (ni = gone, shi = direction). The kanji 西 is also read sei/sai in compounds, as in 関西 Kansai, the western region around Osaka.
西 — top 覀 (cover) + bottom 儿 (legs); originally a bird in nest
Originally a pictograph of a bird settling into its nest at dusk. Because birds return to roost when the sun sets in the west, the character was borrowed to mean 'west.' The original 'nest' meaning was later written with 棲/栖.