About
The character "垩", whose traditional form is "堊", originally signified a specific type of white clay or chalky soil, as indicated by its semantic component "土" meaning earth. Its phonetic component is "亞" (simplified to "亚"), which suggests its ancient pronunciation. This substantive meaning as a white earthen material naturally extended into a verbal usage, meaning to whiten or coat a surface with such a substance, such as in whitewashing a wall. Over time, its application broadened beyond the specific material to denote the general act of applying plaster or a white coating.
Etymology Hide
