字迹
zì jì · HSK 7
handwriting
✍️ 字 character + 迹 trace/track = the traces your characters leave = handwriting
字 is character/writing; 迹 means trace, track, or mark (same 迹 as in 足迹 footprints and 痕迹 a mark left behind). Together: the marks a person's characters leave on paper.
字 — roof 宀 + child 子
Originally depicted a child 子 under a roof 宀, suggesting birth or rearing a child in the home. The meaning later extended to 'to give birth, nurture' and then to 'written character', since characters were seen as offspring derived from earlier pictographs.