零
れい · rei · JLPT N5 · noun
nothing
零 = rain (雨) + command (令): tiny drops, next to nothing = zero
Etymology: 零 first meant light rain or falling drops, with 雨 (rain) for meaning and 令 (rei) for sound. From tiny leftover drops it came to mean a trifling amount, then zero. Sound hook: rei sounds like ray, as in not a ray of anything left.
零 — rain 雨 + order 令 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 雨 (rain) gives the meaning and 令 supplies the sound. It originally meant scattered drops of falling rain, then extended to 'fragmentary, leftover bits,' and in modern Chinese came to mean 'zero.'