How to Write 扢 (gǔ) — Meaning “to rub or dust”

Imagine your hand (扌) is like a brush dusting off a table, and the right part 乞 looks like a person bending down to pick up dust. So, 扢 is the hand action of rubbing or dusting things clean. Picture your hand moving in a quick, rubbing motion to remove dirt.

Pay attention to the right side 乞: it has three strokes, starting with a short left-falling stroke (丿), then a horizontal hook (𠃌), and finally a curved downward stroke (乚). A common mistake is writing the right side too wide or making the last stroke too vertical. Keep the overall shape compact, with the hand radical on the left slightly taller.

扎 (zhā) means to pierce or tie, and uses the radical 扌 with right side 乚 (a hook shape), while 扢 uses 乞 (beggar or give). Their meanings are completely different: 扎 involves stabbing or binding, but 扢 involves gentle rubbing or dusting. Visually, the right part of 扎 has a single bent stroke, whereas 扢 has three strokes forming a more complex shape.

扢 is very rare in modern everyday Chinese and is not part of the HSK vocabulary. It appears mostly in older texts or regional dialects to describe actions like dusting off clothes (扢打) or fiddling with something (扢弄). You might encounter it in classical literature or folk sayings, but in standard Mandarin it is usually replaced by common words like 擦 (cā, to wipe) or 拭 (shì, to wipe).

Common words containing 扢 include: 扢扎 (gǔ zhā) — to clean or tidy up; 扢打 (gǔ dǎ) — to dust or pat clean; 扢弄 (gǔ nòng) — to rub or fiddle with.