淘
táo · HSK 7
to wash
🌊 sounds like táo; swirl water to wash and pan out the bad bits, eliminating them
淘 mixes the water radical 氵with 匋 (táo, a pottery jar), giving the sound: water sloshing in a vessel to rinse rice or pan for gold, washing away and eliminating the unwanted.
淘 — water radical 氵 + pottery 匋
淘 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The water radical 氵 gives the meaning, since the original sense was to wash or rinse something (like rice or gold) in water. The right side 匋 (a jar/pottery shape) supplies the sound, and over time the word extended to 'sift out' and 'naughty' (as in 淘气).