About
The character "榔" is a phono-semantic compound consisting of the wood radical (木) as its semantic component and "郎" as its phonetic element, originally referring to the betel palm tree in the compound "槟榔". Its meaning later expanded to denote a hammer, as in "榔头", likely due to the common use of hard wood in crafting such tools, with the character's structure remaining unchanged throughout this semantic shift.