Dong Chinese dictionary

yì

spy on

Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and a remnant of 射 represents the sound.

Components

目 Iconic component

mù

eye

Depicts an eye spying.

射 Sound Remnant component

shè

shoot

Modern form looks like 幸. Originally the 矢 in 射.

睪 and 射 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.睪 /*laːɡ/
射 /*Cə.lAk-s/, /*Cə.lAk/

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 射 than it was in ancient scripts.

Evolution

Bronze script

Early Warring States (~400 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

𠬤 (睪)

yì

spy on

睪

yì

to spy out

Component uses

Sound component in 7 characters (4 verified)

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

季旭昇《說文新證》p.773-774

劉釗《古文字構形學》p.87-88