鞋跟 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

xiégēn

heel

xié shoes

Phonosemantic compound. 革 represents the meaning and 圭 represents the sound.

Components

革 Meaning component

gé leather

圭 Sound component

guī jade pointed at top

Change in sound

鞋 and 圭 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
鞋 *[g]ˤre (no pre-Qín exx.)
圭 *[k]ʷˤe

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	hea	[g]ˤre (no pre-Qín exx.)	shoe

Sources

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

gēn heel

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

Components

足 Meaning component

zú foot

艮 Sound component

gěn, gèn, hén blunt

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	kɯːn

說文解字

《說文》：“跟，足踵也。从足，聲。，跟或从止。”

Sources

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

鞋 xié shoes

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

跟 gēn heel

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

xié shoes

gēn heel