播
bō · HSK 6
sow
🌱 播 = 扌(hand) + 番 (turn/spread); hand spreads seeds — sow, broadcast
扌is the hand radical; 番 carries a sense of turn/sequence/spreading out. A hand spreading things in turn gives sow, scatter, broadcast — same root as 广播 (radio broadcast).
播 — hand 扌 + 番 (turn/spread, phonetic)
播 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 signals the action, while 番 (originally depicting a paw print, later 'turn' or 'in turn') gives the sound and hints at scattering or spreading. The original sense was sowing seeds by hand, broadcasting them across a field; this extended to today's meanings of broadcasting and disseminating.