挑
tiāo · HSK 4
choose
🫳 扌(hand) + 兆(omen/trillion) — hand picking out one in a trillion
The 扌 radical means hand, and 兆 means omen or a huge number. Together: the hand sorts through many to pluck or choose one out. The same character covers stirring up trouble — provoking with a poking hand.
挑 — hand radical 扌 + 兆 (zhào, omen)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the hand radical 扌 signals a hand action, while 兆 supplies the sound. The original sense was to lift or carry on a shoulder pole, which extended to picking out, selecting, and stirring up — hence today's meanings 'to choose' (tiāo) and 'to provoke' (tiǎo).