About
The character 洮 (táo) is a phono-semantic compound. Its left-side water radical 氵 (shuǐ) provides the semantic link to water or liquids, while the right-side component 兆 (zhào) contributes the pronunciation. Historically, it is best known as the name of the Tao River (洮河), a major tributary of the Yellow River in Gansu province. It also occasionally appears in classical texts as a verb meaning to wash or rinse, an action directly related to its water-related meaning.
Etymology Hide
