终

Left radical 纟 is the simplified silk/thread form of 糸. It anchors 终 in the textile metaphor: the end of a thread, the final knot. Originally 终 depicted a tied-off thread end. The silk radical groups 终 with the textile family — 织 (weave), 结 (knot), 纪 (record), 续 (continue).

Right phonetic 冬 supplies the sound — dōng shifted to zhōng through onset palatalization. There is also a poetic semantic bleed-through: 冬 (winter) is the end of the year's cycle, just as 终 is the end of any process. The two senses reinforce each other, helping fix the meaning 'final, end, ultimately' in memory.