股份公司 (gǔ fèn gōng sī) — joint-stock company; corporation (with shares)

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

In 股, the left 肉 marks the body. The right side, now written 殳, comes from 夃, an old form for thigh, and gives the sound.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

份 is built from 亻, the person form written in full as 人, and 分, which gives the sound.

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

One theory sees 公 as a picture of a wide-mouthed, round-bottomed jar.

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The evidence is inconclusive: one suggestion sees 司 as a mouth giving orders beside a mark of authority, another reads that mark as a hand, and another sees it as a reversed older form.