总之
zǒngzhī · HSK 4
in a word
📝 总 = overall + 之 (classical particle) → 'overall, it...'
总 means 'overall/sum up' and 之 is a classical pronoun/particle. Together: 'to sum up'. Used as a discourse marker meaning 'in short' or 'all in all' to wrap up a point.
总 — top 丷 + 口 + 心 (heart radical)
总 is the simplified form of 總. The traditional form combined 糸 (silk threads) with 悤 as phonetic, originally meaning to gather or tie threads together. From 'bundling threads' the meaning extended to 'gather all,' 'general,' 'overall,' and 'always.'
之 — foot 止 above ground line 一
Originally a pictograph of a foot (止) stepping forward from a baseline, meaning 'to go' or 'to proceed'. Over time the concrete 'going' sense faded, and 之 was borrowed as a grammatical particle marking possession ('of') or as a pronoun ('it'), which became its dominant use in Classical Chinese.