跌跌爬爬
diē​diē​pá​pá

stumbling

跌 diē stumble

Phonosemantic compound. 足 represents the meaning and 失 represents the sound.

Components

足
足 Meaning component
zú foot
失
失 SoundMeaning component
shī lose

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdetlˤi[t] stumble

說文解字

《說文》：“跌，踼也。从足，失聲。一曰越也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

爬 pá crawl, climb

Phonosemantic compound. 爪 represents the meaning and 巴 represents the sound.

Components

爪
爪 Meaning component
zhǎo, zhuǎ hand, claw
巴
巴 Sound component
ba, bā to wish

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartbae[b]ˤra climb on all fours

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart