录

Top is 彐, the "snout/broom-hand" component — picturing either a pig's head or a hand grasping. Here it represents a hand turning the crank of an early scribe's writing apparatus. Same shape sits in 当, 寻, 雪, 归. No canonical Kangxi survives the reform; modern schemes file 录 under 王 by graphic resemblance.

Bottom is 氺, a vertical-fountain form of 水 water with strokes spread out below the upper component. Originally 录 depicted a hand operating a winch over water — the meaning was "to draw out, to extract" (a bucket from a well), which generalized to "to record, to write down, to copy down what flows past." Modern senses: 录音 record sound, 记录 record-keeping, 录取 to admit.