Definitions
species of water plant
Etymology
About
The character 莙 is a phono-semantic compound formed from the grass radical 艹 (a shorthand for 艸, meaning 'grass' or 'plant') and the phonetic 君, which carries the sense of 'lord, ruler, or gentleman'. The radical places 莙 squarely in the plant kingdom, while 君 supplies the sound with no semantic role. In modern usage, 莙 is almost exclusively found in the compound 莙薘菜, the term for Swiss chard or a leaf beet cultivated for its edible foliage. Historical dictionaries additionally record the character as an occasional name for certain water plants or algae, though such uses are rare. As a result, 莙 is a highly specialized term confined to botanical and agricultural nomenclature.
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