沓 (dá): measure word for a stack/pad of…

Meanings

1 measure word for a stack/pad of thin items (paper, banknotes, documents)
2 repeated; numerous; verbose

Characters

沓

dá

stack of thin items; (tà) repeated, verbose

Examples

HSK 5

桌上堆着一沓没批改的作业。

Zhuōshàng duī zhe yī dá méi pīgǎi de zuòyè.

A stack of unmarked homework was piled on the desk.

HSK 7-9

他从抽屉里拿出一沓钱。

Tā cóng chōuti lǐ náchū yī dá qián.

He pulled a stack of cash out of the drawer.

Tips

mistakes

Two readings, two meanings. As a measure word for stacks of paper, money, or napkins it is dá. The reading tà appears in literary/old usage like 杂沓 ('chaotic, jumbled') - modern speech almost always wants dá.

Components

radical

水 shuǐ

water

Full-form water radical sitting on top - kept as the standalone 水 shape rather than contracting to 氵 because here it stacks above 日, not against a left side. Originally signals flow and overflow: words tumbling out, papers piling up like water rising. Indexes 沓 in the water family even though the modern meanings (stack, voluble) feel disconnected.

semantic

日 rì

sun; day; speak (here)

Bottom 日 - visually the sun box, but here likely an old graphic substitute for 曰 'to speak'. Combined with 水 above, the earliest reading was 'water-over-mouth, words rushing out', giving the tà reading of repeated, verbose speech. The dá 'stack' sense - a pile of paper or banknotes - is a later extension from things heaped one over another.