莿
cì

thorn

A plant 艹 that pricks 刺; 刺 also provides the pronunciation

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass
刺
刺 SoundMeaning component
cì stab

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangsʰeːɡs
raːds

說文解字

茦也。从艸刺聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica