About
The character "揿", meaning to press, derives from its traditional form "撳", both constructed with the hand radical (扌) to denote manual action and a right-side phonetic component, "钦" in simplified and "欽" in traditional, which approximates the pronunciation "qīn" though the character is read "qìn". The independent meaning of "钦" (欽) as "to respect" holds no semantic role in this compound, which exclusively represents the act of pressing. Historically, this character originated in later Chinese to capture a vernacular verb for pushing down, and its meaning has remained specific to applying downward force, as seen in terms like "揿钮" for press-button.