初期
chū qī · HSK 5
beginning period
🌱 初期 = beginning (初) + period (期)
初 means first or beginning (the 衤 cloth radical + 刀 knife — cutting cloth was the first step in making clothes). 期 means period or phase. Together: the first phase, initial stage.
初 — clothes radical 衤 + knife 刀
初 combines 衤 (clothes) and 刀 (knife), depicting the act of cutting cloth to begin making a garment. From this concrete image of starting a tailoring task came the extended meaning 'beginning' or 'first'. It is an associative compound, not phonetic.
期 — 其 (phonetic) + 月 (moon/time)
期 is a phono-semantic compound. The right side 月 (moon) signals meaning, since lunar cycles marked fixed time periods in ancient China. The left side 其 supplies the sound. Together it points to a set time, period, or appointed date — meanings still carried today in words like 期间 and 日期.