做操 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

zuòcāo

calisthenics

zuò work

做 originated as a variant form of 作.

zuò make

The right half of 作 was corrupted to look like unrelated 古.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 作 than it was in ancient scripts.

攵 Meaning component

pū tap

夂 is a component form of 攴.

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	ʔsaːɡs

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 喿 represents the sound.

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

喿 Sound component

zào, sào, qiāo chirping of birds

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tshawX	[tsʰ]ˤawʔ	grasp (v.)
	tshawH	[tsʰ]ˤawʔ-s	(what is grasped:) principles

《說文》：“操，把持也。从手，喿聲。”