跟踪
gēnzōng · HSK 7
track
👣 跟 (heel/follow) + 踪 (footprint/trace) = follow the tracks
跟 means heel or to follow closely; 踪 means footprint or trace. Together they describe trailing someone by their tracks. The 足 radical in both characters points to feet and movement.
跟 — foot radical 足 + 艮 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 足 (foot) gives the meaning, since 跟 originally referred to the heel of the foot. The right side 艮 supplies the sound. From 'heel' it extended to 'follow behind,' and in modern Chinese it also works as 'with' or 'and.'