低头
dītóu · HSK 6
bow/hang one's head
🙇 低 = low + 头 = head; lowering one's head signals submission
低 (dī) means low or to lower; 头 (tóu) means head. Together: to lower the head — literally bowing, figuratively yielding or surrendering. The compound captures both the physical gesture and the act of giving in.
低 — person radical 亻 + 氐 (base)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 亻 (person) gives the meaning, while 氐 supplies the sound and originally depicted something reaching the ground or base. Together they suggest a person bowing low, which extended to the general sense of 'low' in height, position, or degree.
头 — 页 (head/page) + 豆 (bean, phonetic)
The traditional form 頭 combines 頁 (xié), meaning 'head', with 豆 (dòu) as the phonetic component. 頁 itself originally depicted a person with an emphasized head. The simplified form 头 is a modern shorthand that replaces 豆+頁 with a simpler shape while keeping the same meaning of 'head' or 'top'.