About
The character 舀 is an ideogram that illustrates a hand (爫) scooping pounded rice from a mortar (臼). The upper component, 爫, is a variant of 'claw' and indicates the manual effort; the lower component, 臼, depicts the mortar that holds the rice. This configuration of a hand reaching into a container to extract its contents directly conveys the verb's meaning. As a result, 舀 has consistently signified the action of ladling or scooping liquids and loose materials from a vessel throughout its history.
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