飜

Phono-semantic compound:

飛 (날 비, “to fly”) — semantic, suggesting movement, fluttering, or overturning.

番 (차례 번, “turn, sequence”) — phonetic, providing the sound.

The combination conveys the sense of repeated turning like fluttering wings, extended metaphorically to “overturning” and later “translation” (as turning one language into another).

번역 (飜譯) — translation

번복 (飜覆) — reversal, overturning, retraction

번신 (飜身) — to turn over the body

번연 (飜然) — suddenly, abruptly

飜 emphasizes the act of overturning or changing, whether in physical movement (turning, flipping) or in linguistic transformation (translation).

翻 (U+7FFB) — functionally identical; this is the standard form in China, Japan, and Taiwan. In Korea, 飜 is still listed as the main form, though 翻 is common in handwriting due to its simpler strokes.