About
The character 揲 (shé or yè) is a phono-semantic compound formed with the hand radical 扌 (shǒu), indicating an action performed with the hands, and the component 枼 (yè), which provides its sound. It is historically noted for its specialized use in ancient milfoil divination, where it denoted the act of sorting or counting the yarrow stalks to form a hexagram. With alternative pronunciations, the character also came to mean folding or holding, illustrating how a term with a precise ritual origin can extend to describe a range of manual actions depending on context.
Etymology Hide
