土木
どぼく · doboku · JLPT N1 · noun
public works
🏗️ 土 earth + 木 wood = public works, like roads built from earth and timber
Early public works were largely earthen embankments, roads and dams, with timber for bridges and supports. The two characters name those materials, so the word means civil infrastructure.
土 — pictograph of a mound of earth on the ground
土 is a pictograph showing a lump or mound of soil resting on the ground line. In oracle bone script it depicted an earthen heap, sometimes interpreted as an altar to the earth god. The meaning has remained stable: earth, soil, or ground.