挽
wǎn · HSK 7
to draw
🛒 扌hand + 免 = a hand that pulls or draws a cart; also to mourn the dead
The 扌hand radical signals a physical action: pulling or drawing a cart by hand. By extension 挽 means to pull back or hold onto, and in funeral terms (挽歌, 挽联) it is the pulling grief of mourning the dead. Pronounced wǎn, a near rhyme with English wan.
挽 — hand radical 扌 + 免 (miǎn, phonetic)
挽 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the hand radical 扌 gives the meaning 'to pull' or 'draw with the hand', while 免 supplies the sound (miǎn → wǎn). Originally meaning to pull or draw back, it extended to senses like 'to retrieve', 'to lament' (as in 挽歌, a funeral elegy), and 'to roll up' sleeves.