迎える
むかえる · mukaeru · JLPT N4 · verb-ichidan
to meet
🚪 迎 = 辶 (walk) + 卬 (look up): walk out to greet whoever is arriving
Mukaeru shares its root with mukau (向かう, to face/head toward): to welcome is to go toward the person coming. The same kanji is read gei in 歓迎 (kangei, welcome), so the two words reinforce each other.
迎 — walk radical 辶 + 卬 (phonetic)
迎 is a phono-semantic compound: 辶 (walk/movement) gives the meaning of going toward someone, while 卬 supplies the sound (close to yíng). 卬 originally depicted a person looking up, reinforcing the idea of facing or greeting. Together the character means 'to welcome' or 'meet'.