延误
yán wu · HSK 7
to be held up
✈️⏰ 延 extend/drag-out + 误 miss/err = dragged out so long you miss it = delay
延 means to prolong or stretch out time; 误 means to miss or err. Stacked together they name the kind of delay that makes you miss a flight or chance. The flagship phrase is 航班延误, flight delay.
延 — 廴 (long stride) + 㥯/丿 + 止 (foot)
延 originally depicted a foot (止) on a road or path (廴), suggesting walking a long way. From this came the meanings 'to extend,' 'to prolong,' and 'to delay.' The modern form retains 廴 on the left as the semantic clue for movement and extension.
误 — speech radical 讠 + 吴 wú (phonetic)
误 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (speech) hints at meaning—originally tied to mistaken or misleading words—while 吴 supplies the sound. Over time it broadened from verbal errors to any mistake, delay, or harm caused by error.