托付
tuō fù · HSK 7
to entrust
🤲 托 hold-out-palm + 付 hand-over = place something in another's care = entrust
托 (tuō) means to hold out or support on the palm; 付 (fù) means to hand over or pay. Together the two verbs stack into handing a thing or duty over for someone to keep safe.
托 — hand radical 扌 + 乇 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 扌 (hand) gives the meaning—actions done with the hands like supporting, holding up, or entrusting—while 乇 supplies the sound. The original sense of physically holding something on the palm extended to figurative uses like 'entrust' or 'rely on'.
付 — person radical 亻 + hand 寸
付 originally pictured a hand (寸) reaching out to hand something to a person (亻), depicting the act of giving or delivering. The core sense 'to hand over, deliver, pay' has remained stable since ancient bronze inscriptions. It also serves as a phonetic component in characters like 附, 符, and 府.