背景
はいけい · haikei · JLPT N1 · noun
background
🏞️ 背景 = back (背) + scenery (景): the scenery at your back, behind the main subject
背 means back and 景 means scenery or view. Together they name what sits behind the main subject, like a stage backdrop or the setting behind a story's events.
背 — north 北 (phonetic) + flesh 月/肉
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 月 (a form of 肉, 'flesh/body') gives the meaning 'back of the body,' while 北 supplies the sound. Interestingly, 北 itself depicted two people back-to-back and once meant 'back'; when it was borrowed for 'north,' 背 was created with the flesh radical to keep the original sense.
景 — sun 日 on top + capital 京 below (phonetic)
景 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 日 (sun) gives the meaning and 京 (jīng, capital) supplies the sound. It originally meant 'sunlight' or 'bright', then extended to 'shadow cast by sunlight', and later broadened to 'scenery' or 'view'.