About
杪 (miǎo) is a phono-semantic compound with the wood radical 木 (mù) on the left, grounding it in botanical meaning, and the phonetic component 少 (shǎo) on the right, which suggests pronunciation and the idea of smallness. The character primarily means the tip of a tree branch. By extension, it often metaphorically refers to the end of a time period, like the close of a season or year. This combination of a wood radical with a phonetic element implying diminishment aptly captures the tapering form of a branch tip.
Etymology Hide
