Character etymology for 足 (zú, foot)

mandarinboy

September 27, 2008, 06:02 AM posted in General Discussion

This is a sidestep on the way to the more complex character we where about to talk about but this character shows how small additions to a Chinese character can create new meanings.

 

Character: 足

Traditional form: 足

Pinyin: zú

Meaning: foot

Frequency: 502

Strokes: 7

Decomposition: 口 kǒu mouth+  龰zhǐ stop

Radical part: 止

Alternative forms of radical:  龰

Radical meaning: stop

Stroke animation: (the strokes are drawn the direction the picture is tipping)

 

 

 

Etymology: The 止 part we did look at in this post:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/3414

 

What we se is the foot, explained in the post above, and the knee-cap.

 

Link to nciku usage of the character 日 (examples, sound etc)

 

http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E8%B6%B3/1320359

 

 

Example words:

满足 mǎn zú to satisfy / to meet (the needs of) 

远足 yuǎn zú excursion / hike / march 

美式足球 Měi shì zú qiú American football 

丰足 fēng zú abundant / plenty足球 zú qiú football / soccer 

足迹 zú jì footprint / track / spoor 

驻足 zhù zú to stop (walking) / to halt 

微不足道 wēi bù zú dào negligible

 

 

Character:  足