荼 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

tú

bitter vegetable

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

Components

艹 Meaning component

cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

余 Sound component

yú I

Change in sound

荼 and 余 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
荼 *lˤra
余 *la

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	drae	lˤra	(name of a plant)

《說文》：“荼，苦荼也。从艸，余聲。”