丝绸 (sī chóu) 'silk' joins two characters. 丝 (sī) is a pictograph of twisted silk threads, drawn in the traditional 絲 as two skeins of thread side by side. 绸 (chóu) is a phono-semantic compound built on the silk radical 纟with 周 (zhōu) supplying the sound, and names a kind of woven silk fabric. Together they give the general word for silk, the material that named the Silk Road.

Origin

compound

Root

丝 (sī, silk threads) + 绸 (chóu, woven silk cloth)