About
擢 is a phono-semantic compound: the hand radical 扌 signals manual action, and 翟, originally a long-tailed pheasant, provides the pronunciation zhuó. Its earliest meaning was the physical act of pulling something out or drawing it upward, as in uprooting a plant or extracting an object from a container. Over time, this literal upward removal developed a figurative use in classical texts and modern compounds like 提拔 and 擢升, where it refers to elevating an official or promoting someone to a higher rank.
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