始

Left woman radical - a pictograph of a kneeling figure with crossed arms. It indexes 始 in the family linking women to origin and beginning: 姓 surname, 妊 pregnant, 娠 with child, 婴 infant. The original etymology is bodily: 始 is the moment of life's beginning, the first stirring inside the mother.

Right side 台 supplies the sound: tái drifting to shǐ through historical alternation; also read yí 'I' in classical Chinese. Same family shares the t/sh drift across 怠 idle and 殆 dangerous. In its yí reading 台 carried the early sense 'foetus' - pairing with the woman radical to pinpoint 始 as life's first moment.