Why does 写 not have a dot on top?

Question

Many hanzi have a roof on top, including a dot. From the HSK2 list, we have:

客 家 字 完 室 安 它

The commonly used hanzi 写 is unlike these because it does not have a dot on top.

Chinese-tools.com lists hanzi with the radicals 宀 and 冖. On the list for 冖, the only other one I've seen before with 冖 on top is 农, although I would never had realized.

I'm wondering if there's a reason the hanzi 写, in particular, does not have a dot.

Question: Why does 写 not have a dot on top?

(Another exception I can think of is 买, which has the radical 乛 on top, but it has a counterpart 实 with a roof.)

Answer 1

The, new, Outliers dictionary provides some insight as to how 寫 became 写:

FORM

写 is shorthand for 寫. The top part, 冖, is a common abbreviation for 宀. The bottom part is a shorthand abbreviation for 舄 (see the diagram below for how that works).

which is referenced from:

邵源、邵冠勇，2010《簡化漢字解說》，济南：齐鲁书社 2010年12月第一版。

It also continues:

COMPONENTS

冖

In 写, 冖 is an empty component. It was originally 宀 “building,” a meaning component, hinting at the original meaning “to move something from one location to another.”

The simplified version is just simply old shorthand that was in turn made into a Chinese simplified character.

Answer 2

I'm not sure why, but the traditional form 寫 has the dot. But in the calligraphy, there were some styles that don't have the dot before. e.g.

And one of these styles, i.e. 写, is selected as the simplified form.

It is said that in the calligraphy, according to the artistic sence one more stroke or one less stroke is not uncommon.

BTW: There're also some common characters with the radical 冖, e.g.

冗 农 军 罕 冠 冥