不停
bùtíng · HSK 5
non-stop
⏱️ 不 (not) + 停 (stop) = non-stop
不 negates and 停 means stop or halt, so 不停 literally reads as not-stopping. 停 itself breaks into 亻(person) + 亭 (pavilion), the sound component giving tíng.
不 — single pictograph; bird flying upward
Originally a pictograph in oracle bone script, traditionally interpreted as a bird flying up toward the sky and unable to come down, suggesting negation or refusal. Over time it became the standard negation word in Chinese, used before verbs and adjectives to mean 'not'.
停 — person 亻 + pavilion 亭
A semantic-phonetic compound: 亻 (person) gives the meaning, while 亭 (pavilion, also pronounced tíng) supplies the sound. The image is of a person stopping at a roadside pavilion to rest, which yields the modern senses 'to stop, halt, park.'