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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

追

zhuī
to chase after; to pursue (someone)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 辵
  • 10 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *tul): semantic 辶 (“movement”) + phonetic 𠂤 (duī) – moving after, pursuit. See also 師 and 官.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese辵 “to walk for a while and be still for a while”
    • ideaChinese彳 “to walk slowly”
    • ideaChinese止 “foot”
  • soundChinese𠂤 “ancient form of 師 (“troops”)”

Words built on it: 追求

Meanings

character
  1. to chase after; to pursue (someone)
  2. to hunt; to track
  3. to pursue (fame, etc.); to seek
  4. to woo; to chase; to court
  5. to recall; to recollect
  6. posthumously

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

追：逐也。从辵𠂤聲。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 跟在後面或由後面趕上去。 例：追隨、追趕、急起直追　◎
  2. 尋求、探究。 例：追蹤、追根究底
  3. 催討、索還。 例：追贓、追債
  4. 戀愛求偶。 例：倒追、追女朋友
  5. 回溯已往。 例：追悼、追溯、追念

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 追 was written 字形演變

  1. 追 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 追 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 追 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 追 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 追