递交
dì jiāo · HSK 7
to hand in
📬 递 = pass along + 交 = hand over — double delivery
Both characters carry a sense of transfer. 递 means to pass or deliver, 交 to hand over or exchange. Together they reinforce the act of formally submitting something, like handing in a report or presenting documents to an authority.
递 — 辶 (walk) + 弟 (younger brother, phonetic)
递 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The 辶 radical means 'walk/movement,' giving the sense of carrying or passing something along a path. 弟 supplies the sound. The character originally meant to hand over or pass in succession, which extends to modern senses like 'deliver' and 'in turn.'
交 — top 亠 + 父-like crossed legs
Originally a pictograph of a person standing with legs crossed, showing the idea of crossing or intersecting. From this concrete image, the meaning extended to abstract senses like 'exchange,' 'interact,' and 'hand over.' Modern uses such as 交流 (exchange) and 交通 (traffic) all trace back to this core notion of crossing.