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I've seen somewhere that it was two hands together greeting someone. It makes some sense since the left part does look like 手, but the right part doesn't, and I don't remember any other characters that have it.
What's the real story about the character 拜?
「拜」was originally「𢳎」, comprised of「手・扌」and「𠦪」.
「𠦪」(please read this in both meaning and sound as「禱」) depicts flowery adornments used in dances and religious prayer/rituals.
The combination of「手」(hand) and「𠦪」(flowery adornments used in dances and religious prayer/rituals) indicated the meaning to conduct obeisance.
In the character「𢳎」, the bottom part of「𠦪」was sometimes corrupted into something that looked like「手」.
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Similarly, the top part of「𠦪」, which is「卉」, was sometimes removed. This leads on to the modern form of「拜」.
References:
http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/xs/62DC.htm
(1) (会意。从两手,从下。《说文》古文上象两手,丅为“下”的古体。《说文》引 扬雄说:“拜从两手下。”表示双手作揖,或下拜。隶书将“丅”(下)并入右边的“手”之下而成为“拜”,一直沿用至今。本义:古代表示敬意的一种礼节。两手合于胸前,头低到手)
丅为“下”的古体 (丅 was 下 (down)'s ancient form)
(下)并入右边的“手”之下而成为“拜” (下/丅 was merged into the right side 手)
Basically, The character '拜' depicts [two hands + move down] = [to worship --> to show respect] and it extended to more different meanings over time.
