挖掉 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

wādiào

dig out

wā dig

To dig out 扌 a hollow 穵; 穵 also provides the pronunciation

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

wā, yà deep hollow

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	qʷriːd

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

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

卓 Sound component

zhuó, zhuō profound

Change in sound

掉 and 卓 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
掉 dhèu
卓 traewk

Regular Modern

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《說文》：“掉，搖也。从手，卓聲。《春秋傳》曰：‘尾大不掉。’”