黄色
きいろ · kiiro · JLPT N5 · noun
yellow
🍋 黄色 = yellow (黄 ki) + colour (色 iro): ki-iro, the yellow colour
黄 alone reads ki and means yellow; 色 reads iro and means colour. Japanese names several colours this way, such as 茶色 chairo (tea colour = brown). The long ii in kiiro is simply ki meeting iro.
黄 — 廿 + 田 (or 由) + 八
Originally a pictograph of a person wearing a jade belt-pendant (huang), later borrowed to mean the color yellow. The modern shape is stylized and no longer transparent. It is one of the oldest Chinese characters, attested on oracle bones.
色 — person 人 (top) + kneeling figure 卩 (bottom)
Originally a pictograph showing one person above another, traditionally interpreted as depicting facial expressions or intimate posture between two people. The earliest meaning was 'facial expression' or 'countenance,' which extended to 'appearance' and eventually 'color' (the look of things). The 'shǎi' reading is a colloquial variant used for everyday color words.