夏

Bottom 夂 (Kangxi #34) — a stylized foot pointing down, here the legs of the dancing figure. The indexing radical of 夏. Same foot-radical appears in 冬 (winter) and 复 (return). The pairing of 冬 and 夏 under the same dancing-foot radical is a small piece of seasonal symmetry built into the script.

Top single horizontal — graphically the cap-stroke of a stylized head. In the older 夏 form there was a fuller 頁-style head on top; the modern simplification shaved it down to just this one indicating stroke. Pedagogically a positional cap, no longer a recognizable face.

Middle 自 — originally a pictograph of a nose, by extension 'face' or 'self'. In the older 夏 the upper torso showed a person's face; the middle 自 here is the residue of that face. Together with the cap above and the legs below, 夏 was a full-body picture of a person performing the seasonal dance of summer rites — 'summer' is the season of that dance.