犮 (bá): to pull up; to uproot (archaic)…

Meanings

1 to pull up; to uproot (archaic); old variant of 拔

Characters

犮

bá

to pull up; uproot (archaic)

Examples

农民把田里的杂草拔掉了。

Nóngmín bǎ tiánlǐ de zácǎo bá diào le.

The farmer pulled the weeds out of the field.

Tips

history

犮 ('to pull up') is archaic and not used independently in modern Chinese. It survives as the phonetic in 拔 (to pull out), 跋 (to trek / a postscript), 魃 (a drought demon), and 钹 (cymbals).

Components

semantic

犬 quǎn

dog; running animal

Based on the 'dog' element with an extra slanting stroke; the original sense related to a dog bounding off, later generalized to 'pull / uproot' in 犮.

ideograph

丿 piě

cutting stroke

The extra slanting stroke marks the wrenching, tearing-away motion that distinguishes 犮 from the plain dog element.