跌跌跄跄
diē​diē​qiàng​qiàng

stagger

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)

跄 qiāng, qiàng walk rapidly Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 足 represents the meaning and 仓 represents the sound. Simplified form of 蹌.

Components

足
足 Meaning component
zú foot
仓
仓 Sound component
cāng granary

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

蹌 walk rapidly Traditional

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

Components

足
足 Meaning component
zú foot
倉
倉 Sound component
cāng granary

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangsʰaŋ

說文解字

動也。从足倉聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)