醤油
しょうゆ · shouyu · JLPT N5 · noun
soy sauce
🍶🫘 醤油 = fermented paste (醤) + oil/liquid (油): the liquid off the ferment
醤 (shō) is the fermented mash of soybeans, also seen in Chinese 酱. 油 (yu) means oil, here just a dark liquid. Shōyu is literally the liquid drawn from the ferment. English soy comes from this very word, via Dutch soja.
油 — water radical 氵 + 由 (yóu, phonetic)
油 is a phono-semantic compound. The 氵 radical signals a liquid, while 由 supplies the sound. Originally referring to a river name, it was extended to mean oil or fat — any thick, flowing liquid — which became its dominant modern sense.