About
楮 (chǔ) is a phono-semantic compound: the left radical 木 (mù) indicates its semantic connection to trees, while the right component 者 (zhě) provides its phonetic value. The character originally referred exclusively to the paper mulberry tree, whose bark was a key raw material in traditional papermaking. Over time, this association led to a metonymic shift, and 楮 came to mean paper itself, and later paper money, especially in literary and historical contexts.
Etymology Hide
