積

It is a phono-semantic compound, composed of:

禾 (grain, rice plant) – semantic element, associated with piling up harvested grain;

責 (chaek, to demand, to press) – phonetic element, also suggesting weight or burden.

積 originally depicted piling up grain (禾) under demand or pressure (責), and thus came to mean “to pile up, to accumulate, to amass, amount.”

Semantic range:

- to pile up, to heap – literally stacking up grain or objects.

- to accumulate, to amass – collecting over time.

- quantity, amount – the result of accumulation.

- mathematics (Japanese usage) – the “product” in multiplication, as in 和差積商 (sum, difference, product, quotient).

적립 (積立) – accumulation, saving

축적 (蓄積) – accumulation, amassing

산적 (山積) – piled up like a mountain

누적 (累積) – cumulative

적분 (積分) – integral (mathematics)

면적 (面積) – area (lit. surface accumulation)