jì​cài

shepherd's purse

jì, qí, cí water-chestnuts Simplified

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

plant

Sound component
even

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

cài vegetables

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

is a component form of .

Sound component
cǎi gather, pick

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttshojHs.r̥ˤəʔ-s vegetables

說文解字

艸之可食者。从艸采聲。

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

water-chestnuts Traditional

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

plant

Sound component
even, uniform

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzejXdzˤ[ə]jʔCapsella bursa-pastoris
Zhengzhangzliːlʔ
zlil
Unicodedzhi

說文解字

蒺棃也。从艸齊聲。《詩》曰:“牆有薺。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica