Component 走 a running man with feet underneath

走, a compound ideographic character of a running man with feet underneath, means: walk, run, leave. It serves as semantic component to form characters. Characters formed by the semantic component 走 express things related to walking, walking gestures, foot movements or actions, etc such as 赴, 起, 赶, 趁, 超, 越, 趋, 趃, 赳, 趔 and so on. 走 also acts as phonetic component to form characters.  Continue reading “Component 走 a running man with feet underneath”

Why do 走, 足 and 步 have foot-related meanings?

Have you noticed they all share a 止? 止 is a foot. 走 consists of a person and a foot to mean walk. 足 consists of a town and a foot, which originally meant that a soldier returned to his town in triumph, but now it only means foot. Characters with 走 relate to walking. Characters with 足 relate to movements of feet. 

 

error: Content is protected !!