不止
bù zhǐ · HSK 5
more than
➕ 不止 = not + stop: action doesn't halt, so it keeps going or exceeds
不 (bù) negates and 止 (zhǐ) means stop or halt. Together: not stopping, hence incessantly or going beyond a limit. The same 止 appears in 停止 (tíngzhǐ, to cease) and 禁止 (jìnzhǐ, to prohibit).
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'.
止 — pictograph of a foot/toe
止 originally depicted a human foot with toes, shown as a footprint on the ground. From this concrete image of a foot it came to mean 'to stop' or 'halt' — the place where a step ends. It also serves as a component in many characters relating to feet, walking, or stopping, such as 步 and 正.