old variant of 最[zuì]

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
cover

is a component form of .

Sound component
take

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

說文解字

積也。从冂从取,取亦聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica