初次
chū cì · HSK 7
for the first time
🐣 初 (first/beginning) + 次 (time/occurrence) = the first time
初 carries the sense of initial or beginning, like a chick (🐣) hatching. 次 means an occurrence or instance. Together they mark a debut moment — your first attempt, first meeting, first encounter with something new.
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.
次 — 冫 ice + 欠 yawn/lack
Originally depicted a person (欠) sighing or hesitating, with 二 (later written 冫) marking repetition or a secondary position. The core sense developed from 'second in order' or 'next' into related meanings like 'sequence,' 'time/occurrence,' and 'inferior quality.'