拾
shè , shí · HSK 5
to pick up
🖐️ hand 扌 + 合 (join) — hand that gathers things together to pick up
扌 (hand radical) + 合 (join, combine) signals a hand bringing scattered things together: to pick up, gather, collate. Also the formal banker's form of 十 (ten), used on cheques to block fraud since 拾 is hard to alter.
拾 — hand radical 扌 + 合 (combine)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 扌 (hand) gives the meaning of picking up, while 合 (hé, to join) supplies the phonetic, shifted to shí. Originally meant to gather or pick up with the hand. The reading shè is used in formal contexts and as a numeral variant of 十 (ten) on financial documents.