狠抓
hěn​zhuā

pay close attention to

狠 hěn vicious

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 艮 represents the sound.

Components

犭
犭 Meaning component
quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

艮
艮 Sound component
gěn, gèn, hén blunt

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

說文解字

《說文》：“狠，吠鬭聲。从犬，艮聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

抓 zhuā scratch

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

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

爪
爪 SoundMeaning component
zhǎo, zhuǎ hand, claw

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsraew[ts](ˤ)ru grasp
tsraewXtsˤ<r>uʔ grasp

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart