Definitions
(millet)
Etymology
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The specific agricultural term 穄 refers to a non-glutinous variety of panicled millet. It is constructed as a phono-semantic compound: the left side is the semantic radical 禾 ('grain'), placing the character in the category of cereal crops, while the right side is the phonetic 祭 ('sacrifice' or 'ritual'). Because millet was a fundamental staple and a common offering in ancient agricultural rituals, the character's union of grain and sacrifice directly captures this historical reality. Thus, 穄 functions as a precise botanical noun, setting this non-glutinous grain apart from similar crops through its combination of semantic classification and phonetic specification.
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