拔
bá · HSK 5
to pull up; to pull out
✋ 拔 = hand 扌 + 犮 (uproot); the hand yanks something out
The 扌 radical marks hand-actions; 犮 once depicted a dog being pulled away, lending the sense of forcibly removing. So 拔 covers pulling weeds, plucking hairs, drawing a sword, or picking out the best.
拔 — hand radical 扌 + 犮 (phonetic)
拔 is a phonetic-semantic compound. The hand radical 扌 indicates the meaning—an action done with the hand, namely pulling or uprooting. The component 犮 (originally depicting a dog with legs splayed) supplies the sound 'bá'. The core sense 'to pull out, uproot' has stayed stable since early seal script.