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徼 is a phono-semantic compound: the radical 彳 (chì) indicates walking or stepping, while 敫 (jiǎo) provides the sound. Its original meaning, patrolling or traversing a boundary, directly reflects this movement component. From the sense of border patrol, the character diverged according to pronunciation, yielding a noun for "frontier" or "boundary line" and verbs meaning to seek something out, to intercept someone, or to demand. All these senses extend from the idea of moving along a perimeter.
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