About
A phono-semantic compound, 碴 consists of the semantic radical 石 (stone) on the left, which categorizes it within the domain of minerals or hard, brittle substances, and the phonetic component 查 on the right. Its primary meaning refers to broken fragments of pottery, glass, or ice, and by extension, to the sharp, uneven edges of a fractured object. This concept of roughness is also applied metaphorically to describe stubble or short, bristly hair.