菌菇
jūn​gū

mushroom

菌 jūn mushroom

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

plant

囷
囷 Sound component
qūn round-shaped storage bin for grain

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartgwinX[ɡ]runʔmushroom
Zhengzhangɡonʔ
ɡrunʔ

說文解字

地蕈也。从艸囷聲。

Sources

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

菇 gu mushrooms

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

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

姑
姑 Sound component
gū, gu father's sister

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkumə.kˤamushroom

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart