撒く
まく · maku · JLPT N3 · verb-godan
to scatter
🌱 撒 = hand 扌 + 散 scatter; maku sounds like muck, spread over a field
The kanji is literally a hand radical next to 散 (to scatter), so the hand does the scattering. Say maku like muck: farmers sprinkle muck and sow seed across the soil.
撒 — hand radical 扌 + 散 (scatter)
撒 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 signals an action done with the hand, while 散 (sàn, 'to scatter') supplies both sound and meaning. Together they convey actively letting go or scattering something, as in sprinkling or releasing.