Why's 氵(water) the semantic component of 沒 (non-existence)?

By scherzo
March 22, 2022 at 05:16 AM in Vocabulary, idioms, word lists . . .

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scherzo

Posted March 22, 2022 at 05:16 AM

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Posted March 22, 2022 at 05:16 AM

This Chinese StackExchange answer doesn't resolve my question. How does 氵semantically appertain to 沒? What semantic notion underlies them? The 2 dictionaries below appear to contradict each other! Schuessler states that 沒 "is not derived from "沒 'dive'", but 汉字源流字典 pictures a human hand and a whirlpool!

Axel Schuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007), p 304.

汉字源流字典 by 谷衍奎编 (2010), p 501.

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