玄人
くろうと · kurouto · JLPT N1 · noun
expert
🔧 玄 (deep, profound) + 人 (person) = a person of deep skill, i.e. an expert
玄 means deep or mysterious, so 玄人 is someone whose skill runs deep. Its opposite is 素人 (plain person), a layperson or amateur.
玄 — twisted silk threads, top stroke 亠 over 幺
玄 originally depicted a small bundle of twisted, dyed silk threads, suggesting the deep reddish-black color of the dye. From this concrete sense it shifted to mean 'dark' or 'black,' then extended metaphorically to 'mysterious,' 'profound,' or 'abstruse,' as in Daoist philosophy.
人 — pictograph of a standing person
人 is a pictograph showing a person viewed from the side, with two strokes representing the legs and torso of a standing human. In oracle bone script it clearly depicted a figure leaning slightly forward. The meaning has remained 'person' or 'human' throughout its history.