柠檬草
níng​méng​cǎo

lemongrass

柠 níng, chǔ, zhù lemon Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 宁 represents the sound. Simplified form of 檸.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
宁
宁 Sound component
níng, nìng peaceful, (storage container)

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangtʰaʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

檬 méng type of locust oracacia

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree

tree

蒙
蒙 Sound component
méng, mēng, měng cover

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmoːŋ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

草 cǎo grass

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

Components

艹
艹 SoundMeaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

早
早 Sound component
zǎo early

Character Evolution

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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttshawX[tsʰ]ˤuʔ grass, plants
tshawX[tsʰ]ˤuʔ rough, coarse

說文解字

草斗，櫟實也。一曰象斗子。从艸早聲。

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)

檸 lemon Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 寧 represents the sound.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
寧
寧 Sound component
níng, nìng peaceful

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangrnaːŋʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang