搾

The core meaning is “squeezing something tightly to force liquid or contents out.”

Phono-semantic compound, consists of:

手 (扌) — semantic, hand, manual action

窄 (좁을 착) — phonetic, gives the sound chak / zhà, and conveys a nuance of “narrowness, compression,” reinforcing the meaning of squeezing.

Thus 搾 literally means:

- “to compress by hand,”

- “to squeeze tightly into a narrow space.”

搾乳 (착유) — milking (of animals)

搾取 (착취) — exploitation; to squeeze, to exploit (figurative)

搾汁 (착즙) — juice extraction; pressing juice

搾油 (착유) — oil pressing; extracting oil

搾機 (착기) — pressing machine

榨粉 (착분) — starch pressed from roots/tubers (Chinese loan term)

In everyday Korean:

짜내다 = literal meaning

쥐어짜다 = physical or emotional squeezing (figurative)

Hanja-based forms survive mainly in technical or academic vocabulary such as 착유(搾乳), 착취(搾取), 착즙(搾汁).

搾 vs. 榨:

Chinese distinction:

榨 — default simplified form for "to squeeze; press"

搾 — still appears but less common, more traditional

Japanese distinction:

搾 — primary

榨 — rare, mostly historical or specialized

Korean distinction:

Academic texts may list both 搾 and 榨, but 搾 is standard in Hanja education.

搾取 (“to squeeze and take”) developed metaphorically as economic, political, or personal exploitation.

This meaning is widely used in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.

搾 belongs to a family of characters involving compression:

搾/榨 — squeeze

擠 — press together

攥 — clench

拧/擰 — twist

撳 — push down

All involve manual compression, often with movement.

搾 is common in:

- dairy (milking)

- oil pressing

- fruit juice production

- industrial machines involving compression

- agricultural manuals

Classical citations:

搾 is primarily an early medieval and later character.

Earlier texts use 榨 more frequently.

《明史·食貨志》 (History of the Ming)

「民間自搾油以給食。」

“The common people extracted oil themselves for food.”

《本草綱目》 (Compendium of Materia Medica)

「以石搾其汁。」

“Use a stone to press out its juice.”

《農政全書》 (Complete Book of Agricultural Policies)

「搾乳以飼幼畜。」

“Milk is squeezed to feed young livestock.”

These reflect the typical meaning of pressing out liquids.