粗 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

cū HSK4

rough, coarse

Phonosemantic compound. 米 represents the meaning and 且 represents the sound.

Components

米 Meaning component

mǐ rice

且 Sound component

qiě moreover

Change in sound

粗 and 且 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
粗 tshu
且 tsjo

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tshu	Nə-s.r̥ˤa	coarse, thick (as hair)

《說文》：“粗，疏也。从米，且聲。”