黄色い
きいろい · kiiroi · JLPT N5 · i-adj
yellow
🍋 黄色い = yellow (黄) + colour (色) + adjective ending い
黄 (ki) means yellow and 色 (iro) means colour, so ki-iro is literally yellow-colour. Adding い turns the noun into an adjective. The doubled i in kiiroi comes from ki + iro meeting, so say both: ki-i-ro-i.
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.