About
牍 (dú) is the simplified form of 牘, a character that originally referred to wooden tablets or slips used as a writing medium before the spread of paper. It is a phono-semantic compound: the left component 片 (piàn, meaning "slice" or "flat strip") reflects the shape of the cut wooden board used for writing, while the right component 卖 (simplified from 賣, mài) hints at the pronunciation. As paper replaced wooden slips, the character's meaning shifted to written records, official documents, and correspondence. It lives on in modern compounds such as 文牍 (wéndú), which denotes official correspondence or paperwork.
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