Origin

The character 掘 combines a hand radical on the left, which marks actions done with the hands, with the component 屈 on the right, which provides a sound hint for how to pronounce the character. The hand radical shows this is about manual work, while 屈 guides you toward the クツ pronunciation. The idea of digging comes naturally from the hand-based action component, since digging is something you do with your hands or hand-held tools.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).