Definitions

plantago major

Etymology

About

is a compound character with the grass radical at the top and (dá) beneath it. The radical signals something in the plant kingdom, while indicates the pronunciation without adding any meaning of its own. The character denotes certain leafy vegetables belonging to the beet family, most notably Swiss chard. The simplified form uses ; the traditional form, , replaces it with the fuller phonetic . Thus, exemplifies the common Chinese pattern of combining a semantic radical and a phonetic element to name a specific plant.