失传
shī chuán · HSK 7
lost
📜 失 (lose) + 传 (pass down) = a skill no longer passed down, so it dies out
传 means to transmit or hand down (as in 传统, tradition). When something 失传, the chain of passing it on is lost, so the craft or art goes extinct.
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).