起初
qǐchū · HSK 7
first
🌅 起初 = 起 rise/start + 初 beginning = at the very start, from the outset
起 means to rise or begin (as in 起床 get up); 初 means initial or first (as in 初次 first time). Stacked together they double down on the sense of the earliest stage: at first, originally, ab initio.
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.'
初 — clothes radical 衤 + knife 刀
初 combines 衤 (clothes) and 刀 (knife), depicting the act of cutting cloth to begin making a garment. From this concrete image of starting a tailoring task came the extended meaning 'beginning' or 'first'. It is an associative compound, not phonetic.