撒播 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

sǎbō

sow

sā, sǎ release, scatter

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

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

sàn, sǎn scatter

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang		saːd
Unicode	sɑt

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

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

番 Sound component

fān to take turns

Change in sound

播 and 番 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
播 *pˤar-s
番 *pˤar

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	paH	pˤar-s	to sow

《說文》：“播，穜也。一曰布也。从手，番聲。，古文播。”