𧾷

The foot-on-left radical is one of the most consistent verb cues in Chinese - locomotion verbs cluster here. Run, jump, kick, follow, step, kneel: if the action uses legs, the radical is almost always this one. It is 足 squeezed into a narrow column for side-by-side compounds. Never written alone; the standalone form is 足.

This is the calligraphic compression of 足, originally a pictograph of a knee 口 above a foot 止. In left-position the foot narrows vertically and the bottom hook turns inward so the glyph can share horizontal space with a phonetic on the right. Visually it is nearly identical to the standalone 足.

Locomotion cue: 跑 (run), 跳 (jump), 路 (road), 跟 (follow/heel), 踢 (kick), 踩 (step on), 跪 (kneel).