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拮 is a phono-semantic compound: the radical 扌 (hand) on the left indicates the meaning, while 吉 (jí) on the right supplies the sound, yielding the pronunciation jié. Originally, the character referred to grasping or laboring with the hands. It now appears almost solely in the compound 拮据, which describes financial hardship, the hand radical's physical effort metaphorically extending to the struggle of managing scarce resources.
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