踝 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

huái

ankle

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

Components

足 Meaning component

zú foot

果 Sound component

guǒ fruit

Change in sound

踝 and 果 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
踝 hwaeX
果 kwaX

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	hwaeX	m-kˤ<r>o[r]ʔ	ankle

《說文》：“踝，足踝也。从足，果聲。”