探花 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

tànhuā

illicit filming

tàn, tan explore, find

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

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

Regular Modern

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

《說文》：“，遠取之也。从手，聲。”

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 化 represents the sound.

艹 Meaning component

cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

化 Sound component

huà change

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	xwae	qʷʰˤra	flower (n.)