走
zǒu · HSK 1
to walk
🚶 Top 土 (earth) over 龰 (foot) — a foot moving on the ground means walk
Oracle-bone form showed a person with swinging arms above a foot, depicting someone striding off. Modern 走 keeps that foot radical at the bottom, which is why it also appears in motion words like 起 and 赶.
走 — person running 夭 + foot 止
Originally a pictograph of a person with arms swinging (夭) above a foot (止), depicting someone running. The bottom 止 (foot) was later simplified to a form resembling 火 in modern script. The original sense was 'to run,' which still survives in compounds; the everyday meaning shifted to 'to walk' or 'to go.'