■ radical

de

aim

How it’s built

Phonosemantic compound. 白 represents the meaning and 勺 represents the sound. The character is based on the original meaning "bright white", which is unrelated to the modern meaning.

白

meaning

white

勺

sound

spoon; ladle — The pronunciation of 的 was similar to 勺 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes.