此起彼伏
cǐ qǐ bǐ fú · HSK 7
here
🌊 this-rises + that-falls = waves taking turns
Each pair spells it out: 此 this + 起 rise, 彼 that + 伏 fall. One wave drops as the next swells — an endless relay of crests and dips.
此 — foot 止 + spoon/person 匕
此 originally depicted a person (匕) standing with a foot (止), suggesting 'to stop here' or 'this place.' Over time the meaning generalized from a specific location to the demonstrative pronoun 'this.' The foot component still hints at the original sense of standing in a particular spot.
起 — 走 (run) + 己 (self/phonetic)
起 combines 走 'run/walk' as the meaning component with 己 as the phonetic component. The 走 element suggests movement of the body, giving the core sense of rising up or starting to move. From there it extended to meanings like 'get up,' 'begin,' and 'arise.'