得

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意). The ancient form of 得 is 㝵, composed of 貝 (“cowry”) + 又 (“hand”) — to pick up a cowry > to obtain valuables. A component 彳 was sometimes added to show that the cowry was picked up on the road.

In the Qin Bamboo and Slip script:

* a horizontal line was added to the 又, which means it is replaced with the related 寸. This is a feature of Qin script, and many characters that used to compound with 又 now compound with 寸.

In the Shuowen seal script:

* the 貝 corrupts into something resembling 見. However, this should be an error of Shuowen because it can only be only found in Shuowen and not in historical Qin Seal script, Qin Bamboo, and Slip script.

In the clerical script:

* the 貝 is simplified as 目 (“eye”); such simplification can be seen in its early form in Spring and Autumn and Warring States bronze inscriptions, Chu Bamboo, and Silk script, as well as other characters such as 具. Then it corrupts into 旦 (“dawn”) in later clerical script, and Regular script inherited it.

Pulleyblank (1991) relates it to Tibetan ཐུབ (thub, “to be able to; to withstand”).