足球
zúqiú · HSK 3
soccer
⚽ 足 = foot, 球 = ball → foot-ball
足 means foot and 球 means ball, so 足球 literally reads as foot-ball. Chinese took the English compound and translated each half directly, which is why the morphemes line up one-to-one with the English word football.
足 — top 口 (mouth/enclosure) + bottom 止 (foot)
Originally a pictograph of a leg and foot, with the upper square representing the knee or shin and the lower part 止 depicting the foot itself. It primarily means 'foot' and by extension 'sufficient' or 'enough,' a meaning shift likely from the idea of standing firmly or having a solid footing.
球 — jade radical 玉/王 + qiu 求 (phonetic)
球 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 王 is the 'jade' radical, indicating the original meaning: a fine piece of jade or a jade ornament. The right side 求 supplies the sound 'qiu'. Over time the meaning broadened from a jade sphere to any round object, and today it most commonly means 'ball' or 'globe'.
zú qiú · HSK 3
soccer
⚽ 足 = foot + 球 = ball; foot-ball
足 means foot and 球 means ball, so 足球 literally compounds to foot-ball — the standard Mandarin word for soccer. The same 球 shows up in 篮球 (basket-ball) and 网球 (net-ball).
足 — top 口 (mouth/enclosure) + bottom 止 (foot)
Originally a pictograph of a leg and foot, with the upper square representing the knee or shin and the lower part 止 depicting the foot itself. It primarily means 'foot' and by extension 'sufficient' or 'enough,' a meaning shift likely from the idea of standing firmly or having a solid footing.
球 — jade radical 玉/王 + qiu 求 (phonetic)
球 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 王 is the 'jade' radical, indicating the original meaning: a fine piece of jade or a jade ornament. The right side 求 supplies the sound 'qiu'. Over time the meaning broadened from a jade sphere to any round object, and today it most commonly means 'ball' or 'globe'.