手引
てびき · tebiki · JLPT N1 · noun
guide
📖 手 (hand) + 引 (lead/pull): a hand leads you through a subject, so a guide or introduction
手引 literally means 'hand-pulling': someone takes your hand and leads you along the way. That's why it means guidance, a guide book, or an introductory primer.
手 — pictograph of a hand with five fingers
手 is a pictograph showing an open hand with fingers and a wrist. Early bronze and oracle bone forms clearly depict five splayed fingers, which simplified over time into the modern shape. It keeps its original meaning of 'hand' and also serves as a radical in many characters related to hand actions.
引 — bow 弓 + vertical stroke 丨
A compound ideograph showing a bow 弓 with a vertical line 丨 representing the drawn bowstring. The original meaning was 'to draw a bow,' which extended to 'pull,' 'lead,' 'guide,' and 'cite.' The vertical stroke depicts the action of pulling the string back.