多数決
たすうけつ · tasuuketsu · JLPT N1 · noun
majority rule
🗳️ 多数 = many/majority, 決 = decide: the many decide, so most votes win
多数 (tasuu) means majority and 決 (ketsu) means decision. Together they name the rule that the larger group's choice decides the outcome.
多 — two 夕 (evening) stacked
多 originally depicted two pieces of meat (夕, a variant of 肉) stacked together, suggesting abundance. Over time it was reanalyzed as two 'evenings' piled up — many evenings meaning many days, hence 'many, much'. The doubling itself conveys quantity.
数 — 婁 (lóu, phonetic) + 攵 (action radical)
数 is a phono-semantic compound. The right side 攵 (a hand holding a stick) suggests an action, originally tallying or counting by striking marks. The left side 婁 supplies the sound. Over time the meaning broadened from 'to count' to 'number' and 'several'.