About
The character 藜, referring to plants such as lambsquarters, is a phono-semantic compound comprising the grass radical 艹 for its plant category and the component 黎 which primarily provides phonetic guidance while possibly echoing the plant's dark-hued seeds. Etymologically, this construction originated to designate these weedy plants, and its core meaning has stayed botanical across historical texts, though it found use in classical compounds like 藜藿 to denote humble wild vegetation consumed by the poor. The character's structural composition has remained consistent, and its semantic scope has not diverged from identifying these particular plants.
Etymology Hide
