gāi

roots

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass
SoundIconic component
hài, jiē 12th terrestrial branch

Depicts roots of a plant.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkɯː
krɯː

說文解字

《說文》:“荄,艸根也。从艸,亥聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica