拜托
bài tuō · HSK 7
please!
🙏 BAI-ling someone out by TUO-ing them along — please help me!
拜 means to bow or pay respect, 托 means to entrust. Together: you bow and entrust a task to someone. A respectful please, like clasping hands and asking a favor.
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'.