祖传
zǔ chuán · HSK 7
passed on from ancestors
📜 祖 = ancestor + 传 = pass down: passed down from ancestors
祖 zǔ is ancestor or forefather; 传 chuán means to pass on or transmit. Together: handed down through the generations, like an heirloom inherited from your forebears.
传 — person radical 亻 + 专 (zhuān)
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 亻 (person) gives the meaning 'to pass on' between people, while 専/专 supplied the sound. Early uses referred to relay stations and messengers carrying word from place to place, which broadened to today's senses of transmitting, spreading, and handing down (as in tradition or biography).