荚
jiá

pods of leguminous plants

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 夹 represents the sound. Simplified form of 莢.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

夹
夹 Sound component
jiā, jiá be wedged or inserted between, pressed from two sides

說文解字

艸實。从艸夾聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

莢 pods of leguminous plants Traditional

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

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

夾
夾 Sound component
jiā, jiá be wedged or inserted between, pressed from two sides

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkeːb

Sources

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