打探 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

dǎtàn

inquire

dǎ, da strike

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

Components

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

丁 Sound component

dīng cubes

Change in sound

打 and 丁 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
打 děng
丁 teng

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

咑

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang		rteŋʔ
		teːŋʔ
Unicode	děng

說文解字

《說文新附》：“打，擊也。从手，丁聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

tàn, tan explore, find

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

Components

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

罙 Sound component

shēn deep

Change in sound

探 and 罙 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
探 *l̥ˤ[ə]m
罙 *[l̥][ə]m

Character Evolution

Clerical form — Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	thom	l̥ˤ[ə]m	put the hand into and test

說文解字

《說文》：“，遠取之也。从手，聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

打 dǎ, da strike

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

探 tàn, tan explore, find

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

dǎ, da strike

tàn, tan explore, find