Trace Panda
■ radical

zuò

to work

How it’s built

Originally was written the same as 作 (work). The 夂 (foot; movement) component was added later to distinguish the characters. The middle component 乍 was corrupted to look like 古, which caused later writers to reanalyze 做 as a compound of 亻and 故.

作
meaning

work; writing — Also serves as a phonetic component. In the modern form, 乍 is corrupted to look like 古.

夂
meaning

(foot); stop — 夂 is a component form of 止.

Through the ages

Seal script

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