About
The character 莴 (wō), the simplified form of 萵, is a top-bottom phono-semantic compound. Its semantic component 艹 (cǎo), meaning grass or vegetation, classifies it as an agricultural or edible plant. The phonetic component 呙 (guō), simplified from 咼, indicates the pronunciation but carries no botanical meaning. 莴 specifically refers to lettuce. It most commonly appears in the compound words 莴笋 (wōsǔn), denoting celtuce or stem lettuce cultivated for its thick edible stem, and 莴苣 (wōjù), the general botanical term for all varieties of leafy lettuce.