余所見
よそみ · yosomi · JLPT N1 · noun
looking away
👀 余 (extra) + 所見 (what is seen): what's left over in your sight, so you look aside. Yo-so-mi sounds like 'yo, so me' looking away.
余 means surplus or remainder, 所 marks 'that which', and 見 means seeing. Together they mean the leftover part of your gaze, the glance that drifts off to one side.
余 — roof 亼 + wooden post/pillar
Originally a pictograph of a simple thatched shelter or hut supported by a central post, 余 meant 'lodging' or 'temporary dwelling.' It was later borrowed phonetically to write the first-person pronoun 'I/me,' which became its dominant meaning. The 'surplus/remainder' sense developed through its use as a loan for 餘.
所 — door 戶 (left) + axe 斤 (right)
Originally a sound: an axe (斤) chopping wood near a door (戶), with 戶 also hinting at the pronunciation. Over time it was borrowed to mean 'place' or 'location,' and later became a grammatical particle nominalizing verbs ('that which…'). The concrete 'chopping' sense faded entirely.