禾草
hé​cǎo

grass

禾 hé grain stalk

Pictograph of a stalk of millet grain.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (28 of 66 verified)

种科程称积香税移私稳季稍租稿秩稀秒稣稽颖秃稻稚稼秽稠穗酥秧秤秸稷穑秆秣種稗稹稔穰稞稱秫積秭穀秕穩稜禿稃稅稂稆穫稈稙穢穎穌囷秝穡稨秖犂

Iconic (13)

年利委秀秋兼朵穆秉黍稟秊𣏮

Sound (4 of 7 verified)

和科嵇龢麇藒咊

Simplified (1)

秘

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwa[ɢ]ˤoj growing grain

說文解字

《說文》：“禾，嘉穀也。二月始生，八月而孰，得時之中，故謂之禾。禾，木也。木王而生，金王而死。从木，从省，象其穗。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.571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)

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)