Dong Chinese dictionary

dā, dá

small bean

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 合 represents the sound. Used as a variant of 答.

Components

艹 Meaning component

cao, cǎo

grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

合 Sound component

hé, gě

to join

荅 and 合 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.荅 /*[t]ˤ[ə]p/
合 /*kˤop/, /*m-kˤop/

Evolution

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

荅

dā

answer: small bean; thick

荅

dá

to answer; agree

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

剳

Sound component in 5 characters (2 verified)

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

漢語多功能字庫