活 (huó)

to live; alive; living; work; workmanship

HSK 3.1 level 3
9 strokes

Etymology

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 𠯑 represents the sound.

Shuowen Jiezi

《說文》：“，水流聲。从水，聲。，或从。”

Components

氵 (meaning) — 氵 is a component form of 水.
𠯑 (sound) — Later reanalyzed as the visually similar character 舌.