芽苗
yá​miáo

sprout

芽 yá bud

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 牙 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

牙
牙 Sound component
yá tooth

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngæm-ɢˤ<r>ashoot, sprout
Zhengzhangŋraː
Unicodenga

說文解字

萌芽也。从艸牙聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

苗 miáo sprouts

Sprouts are plants (艹) that rise from the field (田).

Components

艹
艹 Iconic component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

田
田 Iconic component
tián field

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3 of 9 verified)

描猫瞄锚喵鹋貓錨鶓

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmjewm(r)aw sprout (n.)

說文解字

《說文》：“苗，艸生於田者。从艸，从田。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)