The character 交 originally depicted a person with crossed legs, conveying the core idea of "crossing" or "interaction". The character 叉 is a pictograph of an object with forks or prongs, visually representing the shape of something crossed (like an "X"). When combined to form 交叉, the word is created through a direct semantic synthesis: the abstract concept of mutual crossing or intersecting from 交 is reinforced and given a concrete, visual form by the pronged, crossing shape denoted by 叉, resulting in the comprehensive meaning of "to cross", "to intersect", or "crossover".