德者,得也。

黃鎮剛兄來信如下:

As for 德, its meaning is always fascinating to me. This character has not changed much since, well, ancient times and still retains its basic "components", 彳, 心，直 ( an eye with an "arrow" on top). On the other hand, I am interested in people sometime identify 德 with 得, which was originally written as a "手" grabbing a "貝" and no "彳". Literally, 得 and 德 have different meaning, though they may be related in a deeper way.







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訓詁文學常以音訓,如「政者,正也。德者,得也。」

Here is what I found by Googling:
《禮記‧樂記》：「唯君子為能知樂。是故審聲以知音，審音以知樂，審樂以知政，而治道備矣。是故不知聲者不可與言音，不知音者不可與言樂。知樂則幾於禮矣。禮樂皆得，謂之有德。德者得也。」《管子‧心術上》：「德者，得也。」《禮記‧曲禮》：「德者，得理之稱。」論語為政篇子曰:「為政以德,譬如北辰,居其所而眾星共(拱)之。」朱熹注：「德之為言得也，行道而有得於心也。」
「經典文字，往往昧於音訓，擅爲改易，甚與本義相迕，亦字學之大變。」http://www.shnuywhw.com/Elib/ElibBook.aspx?id=5304#