枯茗
kū​míng

cumin

枯 kū dried out

tree 木; 古 provides the pronunciation

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
古
古 Sound component
gǔ old

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhukʰˤa withered, dried up

說文解字

《說文》：“枯，槀也。从木，古聲。《夏書》曰‘唯箘輅枯’。木名也。”

Sources

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

茗 míng tea

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

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

名
名 Sound component
míng name

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmeːŋʔ

說文解字

荼芽也。从艸名聲。

Sources

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