交接
jiāo jiē · HSK 7
to hand over to
🤝 交 hand-over/cross + 接 connect/receive = two parties cross and connect: a handover
交 carries exchange and crossing; 接 means to connect or receive. Put together: one side passes, the other takes up — the point where two things meet and a shift changes hands.
交 — top 亠 + 父-like crossed legs
Originally a pictograph of a person standing with legs crossed, showing the idea of crossing or intersecting. From this concrete image, the meaning extended to abstract senses like 'exchange,' 'interact,' and 'hand over.' Modern uses such as 交流 (exchange) and 交通 (traffic) all trace back to this core notion of crossing.
接 — hand 扌 + concubine 妾 (phonetic)
接 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 carries the meaning of receiving or joining with the hand, while 妾 supplies the sound. From 'taking with the hand' it broadened to 'receive, meet, connect, join together'.