About
The character 芑 (qǐ) is an archaic term for a type of white millet, sometimes also referring to wild chicory in ancient texts. Structurally, it is a phono-semantic compound: the grass radical 艹 (cǎo) at the top places it within the semantic category of plants or crops, while the bottom component 己 (jǐ) provides the phonetic cue for its pronunciation. This character appears mainly in classical poetry and early agricultural writings, where it helps describe rural scenes, historical farming methods, and the variety of cereals cultivated by early agrarian societies.
Etymology Hide
