走私
zǒusī · HSK 6
smuggle
📦 走 walk + 私 private — moving things on the sly
私 originally meant silk thread kept for oneself, hence private or secret. Pair it with 走 (walk/go) and you get going privately — smuggling.
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.'