The word "茴香" is formed by combining the character "茴", which includes the grass radical "艹" to signify it as a plant and uses "回" primarily for its phonetic sound, with the character "香", meaning fragrant, which itself is composed of "禾" for grain and "日" for sun to evoke the concept of aroma. This results in a compound word that literally denotes a fragrant plant, specifically fennel.