About
枳 (zhǐ) is a phono-semantic compound referring to the trifoliate or bitter orange, a thorny East Asian tree with sour fruit. Its semantic component is the wood radical 木 (mù), placing it in the category of trees, while its phonetic component is 只 (zhǐ), which indicates the pronunciation. This character is notably used in a classical proverb stating that orange trees transplanted north of the Huai River become bitter zhi, illustrating how environment shapes nature.
Etymology Hide
