传记
zhuàn jì · HSK 7
biography
📖 传 transmit/pass-down + 记 record = a life recorded and passed on
传 means to pass down or transmit, and 记 means a record or account. Together they form the written record of a life that gets handed down to others: a biography. The CL 篇 or 部 counts the volumes.
传 — person radical 亻 + 专 (zhuān)
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 亻 (person) gives the meaning 'to pass on' between people, while 専/专 supplied the sound. Early uses referred to relay stations and messengers carrying word from place to place, which broadened to today's senses of transmitting, spreading, and handing down (as in tradition or biography).
记 — speech radical 讠 (言) + self 己
记 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (the 'speech' radical, simplified from 言) signals meaning related to words or recording, while 己 ('self') supplies the sound. Together it conveys writing down or remembering — noting things in words.