pitch-black
漆 · 14 strokes
Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 桼 represents the sound. Originally written as 桼, which depicts lacquer or sap oozing out from a varnish tree (木).
黑 · 12 strokes
Pictograph of a person whose face has been tattooed, now written as 墨. In ancient China criminals were punished by having their faces permanently marked. Later writers reanalyzed the character as a ch…