葦
wěi

reed

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

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

韋
韋 Sound component
(surround a city), tanned leather

Character Evolution

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 Western Han 202 BC-9 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 Chinese
Zhengzhangɢʷɯlʔ
Unicodehiuə̌i

說文解字

大葭也。从艸韋聲。

Sources

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

苇 wěi reed Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 韦 represents the sound. Simplified form of 葦.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

韦
韦 Sound component
wéi, huí tanned leather

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode