花卉
huā​huì HSK7

flowers and plants

花 huā, hua flower

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

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

化
化 Sound component
huà change

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxwaeqʷʰˤra flower (n.)

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart

卉 huì general term for plants

Depicts a group of plants (屮, 艹).

Components

屮
屮 Iconic component
chè, cǎo sprout
艹
艹 Iconic component
cao, cǎo grass

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

《說文》：“卉，艸之總名也。从艸、屮。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫The Digital Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)