落第
らくだい · rakudai · JLPT N2 · noun
failure
📝 落 = fall, 第 = rank/order: you fall out of the class ranking, so you fail
第 marks ordinal rank, as in 第一 (first place). 落 means drop or fall, so 落第 means dropping out of the ranking, which is failing a test or class.
落 — grass radical 艹 + 洛 (water 氵 + 各)
Originally written with the grass radical 艹 over 洛, depicting leaves falling from plants. 洛 serves as the phonetic component (giving the luò sound) while 艹 supplies the meaning of vegetation. The sense extended from 'leaves falling' to the general meaning of falling, dropping, or settling down.
第 — bamboo radical 竹 (⺮) + 弟 'younger brother'
Originally written with 弟, which depicted a cord wound in order around a stake — implying sequence or order. The bamboo radical 竹 was later added (because bamboo strips were used for numbered tallies and documents), giving 第 the meaning of ordinal number, sequence, or rank.