打架
dǎjià · HSK 5
fight
👊 打架 = hit (打) + frame/rack (架); to come to blows
打 means to hit or strike; 架 originally meant a wooden frame or rack, extended to a quarrel or fight. Together 打架 literally is striking-frame, the standard verb for physical fighting or brawling.
打 — hand radical 扌 + nail 丁
打 combines the hand radical 扌 (action with the hand) with 丁 (originally a nail), suggesting striking or hitting with the hand. 丁 also serves as a phonetic hint in older readings. The meaning broadened from 'to strike' to a general verb for many hand-based actions, like 打电话 'make a phone call'.
架 — wood 木 + add 加 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 木 (wood) gives the meaning, since a 架 is a wooden frame, rack, or shelf used to support things. 加 (jiā) supplies the sound. From 'wooden frame' it extended to verbs like 'to set up,' 'to prop up,' and to a measure word for framed objects such as airplanes.