Definitions

lóu a drill for sowing grain

Etymology phono-semantic

plow

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

The character is a phono-semantic compound: the semantic radical on the left, depicting a wooden plow, places it among agricultural tools, while the phonetic (simplified; traditional uses ) indicates the pronunciation lóu. It denotes an animal-drawn seed drill invented during the Han dynasty to sow seeds automatically into furrows, a meaning retained in historical and modern agricultural contexts.