摇头
yáotóu · HSK 5
shake one's head
🙅 摇头 = shake (yáo) + head (tóu) — literally 'shake-head' for no/disagree
摇 means to shake or wag, and 头 means head. Together 摇头 is the literal act of shaking one's head, commonly used to signal refusal or disagreement, the mirror of 点头 (nod = tap-head).
摇 — hand 扌 + 䍃 (phonetic, jar/pottery)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the hand radical 扌 gives the meaning of physical motion, while 䍃 (depicting a hand over a jar) supplies the sound. The original sense was to shake or sway something with the hand, later broadened to any swinging or rocking motion.
头 — 页 (head/page) + 豆 (bean, phonetic)
The traditional form 頭 combines 頁 (xié), meaning 'head', with 豆 (dòu) as the phonetic component. 頁 itself originally depicted a person with an emphasized head. The simplified form 头 is a modern shorthand that replaces 豆+頁 with a simpler shape while keeping the same meaning of 'head' or 'top'.