崎 (qí): rugged; rough; uneven (of terra…

Meanings

1 rugged; rough; uneven (of terrain)
2 (used in) 崎岖 (qíqū) — rugged, rough

Characters

崎

qí

rugged; uneven (terrain)

Examples

这条山路非常崎岖。

Zhè tiáo shānlù fēicháng qíqū.

This mountain road is very rugged.

崎岖的地形让车队行进缓慢。

Qíqū de dìxíng ràng chēduì xíngjìn huǎnmàn.

The rugged terrain slowed the convoy down.

Tips

usage

崎 is a bound morpheme — it almost never appears alone. It is most commonly seen in 崎岖 (qíqū, rugged/rough terrain). It also appears in Japanese place names like 川崎 (Chuānqí, Kawasaki) and 宫崎 (Gōngqí, Miyazaki).

Components

radical

山 shān

mountain

Left mountain radical — the indexing radical. Pictograph of three peaks. Anchors 崎 firmly in the topography family with 峰 peak, 岭 ridge, 岩 cliff. The whole word 崎岖 names rugged, broken mountain terrain — exactly what the radical depicts.

phonetic

奇 qí

strange; odd (here phonetic)

Right 奇 supplies the sound qí (exact match). Faintly carries the meaning 'irregular, off-balance' — fitting with rough, uneven ground. Same phonetic family: 骑 ride, 寄 send, 椅 chair, 倚 lean. The 'strange + uneven' overlap makes the etymology feel pleasantly motivated rather than purely phonetic.