插秧
chā​yāng

transplant rice

插 chā insert

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 臿 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

臿
臿 SoundMeaning component
chā to separate the grain from the husk

Depicts using a pestle (午) to grind grain to be separated from its husk in a mortar (臼).

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsrheapmə-[tsʰ]<r>op insert

說文解字

《說文》：“插，刺肉也。从手，从臿。”

Sources

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

秧 yāng rice seedlings

Phonosemantic compound. 禾 represents the meaning and 央 represents the sound.

Components

禾
禾 Meaning component
hé grain stalk
央
央 Sound component
yāng beg

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangqaŋ
qaŋʔ

說文解字

禾若秧穰也。从禾央聲。

Sources

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