Profit character

《漢語大字典》, a major Chinese character dictionary published 1986–1990, catalogs this exact form. An added entry in 《說文解字》, an early Chinese dictionary, glosses an older form as “buying at an excessive price” and “mistake”; it analyzes that form as 貝, a shell sign used in money-related characters, plus 廉 as a sound component.

賺 also names 賺詞 (Mandarin zhuàn cí), a Song-dynasty song suite built from several tunes. 《夢粱錄》, an account of Song-dynasty city life, explains its name as a musical trick: listeners are drawn along until the piece ends.