About
The character 蒟 is a phono-semantic compound in the botanical category, with the grass radical 艹 (cǎo) on top indicating its plant-related meaning. The lower part, 竘 (qǔ), serves as the phonetic component. It was created to refer specifically to the betel pepper plant (Piper betle), whose leaves are chewed in parts of Asia. The combination of the semantic and phonetic elements firmly places this character within botanical terminology, without developing other meanings.
Etymology Hide
