赴任
ふにん · funin · JLPT N1 · noun
appointment
🧳 赴 = go toward + 任 = duty, post: travelling to take up a new appointment
赴 means to head toward, as in 赴く. 任 means duty or assignment, as in 任務. Together they describe leaving for a new posting, the move that comes with a transfer.
赴 — 走 'walk/run' + phonetic 卜
A semantic-phonetic compound: 走 (run, hurry) gives the meaning of going somewhere quickly, while 卜 supplies the sound. Originally meant to rush toward or hasten to a place, and still carries that sense of going to attend something, as in 赴会 'attend a meeting'.
任 — person radical 亻 + 壬 (phonetic)
任 combines the person radical 亻 with 壬, which supplies the sound. The original sense centered on a person bearing a load or burden, which extended naturally to 'carrying responsibility,' 'duty,' and 'to appoint someone to a post.' Modern uses like 任务 (task) and 责任 (responsibility) preserve this core idea.