挑
tiǎo
#1,307 most
frequent character
to raise, to dig up, to poke
Character breakdown
Source: Make Me a Hanzi.
挑 tiāo has 扌 hand as a meaning part and 兆 zhào as a sound part. Its first sense was 'to take'; from there it grew to 'to pick, choose' and 'to nitpick'. Read tiǎo, 'to poke, prick' was borrowed for its sound, and that grew to 'to provoke, incite'.
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