配偶者
はいぐうしゃ · haiguusha · JLPT N1 · noun
spouse
配 — wine vessel 酉 + self 己
Originally depicted a person 己 beside a wine jar 酉, suggesting matching or distributing wine at ceremonies. From this came the meaning 'to pair, match, distribute,' and later 'to deserve' or 'to mix/compound.' The 酉 component gives the wine-related semantic root, while 己 contributes phonetically.
者 — old/elder 耂 + say 曰
Originally depicted sugarcane or a similar plant, but the form was reanalyzed as 耂 (old) over 曰 (say). It became a grammatical suffix meaning 'one who…' or 'the…thing,' nominalizing verbs and adjectives. Today 者 mainly marks agents or categories, as in 学者 'scholar' or 记者 'reporter.'