The word 稻草人 is formed from three characters: 稻, meaning "rice plant"; 草, meaning "grass" or "straw"; and 人, meaning "person". The combination of 稻 and 草 specifies "rice straw", and with 人 added, it literally means "straw person", denoting a scarecrow, which is a figure made of straw shaped like a person to frighten birds away from crops.