跳

The Chinese character 跳 (tiào) for "to jump" is composed of two parts: the radical 辵 (chuò), which represents movement, and the phonetic component 夭 (yāo), which represents a young plant or flower. The character 跳 originally meant "to sprout" or "to grow rapidly," but over time it came to be used more broadly to mean "to jump" or "to leap."The radical 辵 is one of the most common radicals in Chinese, and it is used in many characters related to movement, such as 走 (zǒu, "to walk"), 跑 (pǎo, "to run"), and 跳 (tiào, "to jump"). The phonetic component 夭 is less common, but it is also used in a few other characters, such as 夭折 (yāozhé, "to die young") and 夭亡 (yāowáng, "to die prematurely").The character 跳 is first attested in oracle bone script, the earliest known form of Chinese writing. In oracle bone script, the character is written as a simple combination of the radical 辵 and the phonetic component 夭. The character has remained largely unchanged in its appearance over time, although the phonetic component has been simplified in modern Chinese.The character 跳 is used in a variety of words and phrases related to jumping, leaping, and bouncing. For example, it is used in the word 跳舞 (tiàowǔ, "to dance"), 跳高 (tiàogāo, "to high jump"), and 跳远 (tiàoyuǎn, "to long jump"). It is also used in the phrase 跳槽 (tiàocáo, "to job hop").The character 跳 is a versatile character that can be used in a variety of contexts. It is a useful character to know for anyone who wants to learn Chinese.