传播
chuánbò · HSK 3
spread
📡 传 = pass on + 播 = sow/broadcast → spread far and wide
传 means pass/transmit (as in 传统 tradition); 播 originally meant to sow seeds, now also broadcast (as in 播音 broadcasting). Together: transmit + broadcast = disseminate or propagate.
传 — person radical 亻 + 专 (zhuān)
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 亻 (person) gives the meaning 'to pass on' between people, while 専/专 supplied the sound. Early uses referred to relay stations and messengers carrying word from place to place, which broadened to today's senses of transmitting, spreading, and handing down (as in tradition or biography).
播 — hand 扌 + 番 (turn/spread, phonetic)
播 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 signals the action, while 番 (originally depicting a paw print, later 'turn' or 'in turn') gives the sound and hints at scattering or spreading. The original sense was sowing seeds by hand, broadcasting them across a field; this extended to today's meanings of broadcasting and disseminating.