詞彙學習 The etymology and usage of [打]

「打」/ dǎ/ 是一個十分常用的字。這是一個形聲字，由於起初的字義是用手擊打，因此屬於手部。說起來，和其他很多象形字相比，它的歷史比較短，文字學家普遍認為是東漢 (公元25-220年) 中末期開始形成、使用的，只有不足2000年的歷史。

隨着時間和社會的變化，「打」的字義和用法、讀音也自然經歷了變化，不但從原來的擊打意思延伸出提起、除去、玩耍等動詞的意思，還受到英語的影響多了量詞的功能：一打 /dá/= 1 dozen (12個)。

「打」/ dǎ/ is a very frequently used character. It is made up of the bushou (radical) part on the left, and the sound part on its right. Its original meaning is “to hit”, and thus it has the hand (手) bushou. Compared to many other ideographic characters it has a relatively shorter history of nearly 2000 years. Scholars generally agreed that it was created around the middle to the end period of East Han Dynasty (25-220 CE).

The meaning, usage and pronunciation of 打 has undergone some changes since the word originally appeared. On top of “to hit”, it now also means to fetch, to cancel, to play, and many more depending what other character(s) it is paired up with. Most of these words are verbs. Furthermore, from the influence of English, 打 is also used as a classifier, as in  一打 /dá/ = 1 dozen [note the change in intonation].