投降
toú xiáng · HSK 7
surrender
🏳️ 投降 = throw down (投) + descend/yield (降): throw down weapons and give in
投 means to cast or throw; 降 means to descend or come down. Together they describe throwing down your weapons and coming down off the fight — to surrender. The 🏳️ white flag is the standard signal for it.
投 — hand radical 扌 + weapon 殳
Originally a pictograph of a hand (扌) throwing or hurling a weapon or staff (殳). The core meaning 'to throw, cast, hurl' extended over time to figurative senses like 'to invest,' 'to deliver,' or 'to throw oneself into' something.
降 — 阜 (mound) 阝+ 夅 (descend, phonetic)
Originally depicted two feet (夅) walking down from a mound or hill (阜), showing the act of descending. The 阝on the left is the 'mound' radical, while 夅 carries both phonetic and semantic weight, suggesting downward movement. Pronounced jiàng for 'descend' and xiáng for 'surrender'.