秒
miǎo HSK5

second (time), beard of grain or corn

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

Components

禾
禾 Meaning component
hé grain stalk
少
少 Sound component
shǎo, shao, shào few

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmewʔ

說文解字

《說文》：“秒，禾芒也。从禾，少聲。”

Sources

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