拴
shuān · HSK 7
to tie up
🪢 hand radical 扌 + 全 whole = use hands to keep the whole thing secured; tie it up
拴 shuān combines the hand radical 扌 with 全 (quán, whole). Hands acting to keep something whole and in place means to tie up or fasten. Note 拴 shuān and 全 quán share a rhyme, a hint to the sound.
拴 — hand radical 扌 + 全 (quán, complete)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 signals an action done by hand, while 全 supplies the sound (shuān is close to quán in older Chinese). The original sense is to tie or fasten something securely, as when hitching an animal to a post.