pick, take, fetch, take up
採 centers on reaching out to gather or select something: picking fruit, taking a sample, fetching an item, or taking up an idea.
採 combines 扌 (hand) with 采, which likely contributes both sound and the idea of plucking or picking. The hand radical reinforces the action of gathering or selecting.
A hand 扌 reaches toward a tree 木 with claws 爪 above it, like picking fruit from a branch. 採 is the act of picking or taking.
For サイ, imagine a sigh of satisfaction as you pick the perfect fruit: sigh -> サイ, and your hand gathers the harvest.
use; adoption; acceptance
picking; collecting; harvesting; gathering
to adopt (a method, proposal, etc.); to take (a measure, course of action, etc.); to decide on
mining; digging; working (a mine)
marking; grading; scoring
adoption; selection; choice
profit
felling timber; cutting down trees; logging; lumbering
vote; ballot; division
collecting; gathering
to be collected (of clams, etc.); to be gathered (of mushrooms, herbs, etc.); to be picked (of fruit, etc.); to be mined (of diamonds, etc.); to be extracted (e.g. oil from soybeans); to be obtained
drawing blood; collecting blood
quarrying
taking measurements
(natural) lighting (of an interior space)
mining
recording; transcription
egg collection (from hens, fish, etc.)
urine sampling; urine collection
transcribing in musical notation; copying down (a tune)