摘 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

zhāi HSK5

pluck, pick

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

Components

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

啇 Sound component

dì, shì, zhāi stalk, stem, root

Change in sound

摘 and 啇 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
摘 treak
啇 tek̚

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	treak	tˤrek	pluck (v.)

《說文》：“摘，拓果樹實也。从手，啻聲。”