芋
yù

taro

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

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

于
于 Sound component
yú at

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthjuH[ɢ]ʷ(r)a-staro (Colocasia antiquorum?)
Zhengzhangɢʷa
ɢʷas
Unicodehiò

說文解字

大葉實根，駭人，故謂之芌也。从艸亏聲。

Sources

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