About
苡 is a phono-semantic compound where the radical 艹 (grass) indicates a plant-related meaning, and the component 以 provides the pronunciation. It is used almost exclusively in the botanical compound 薏苡 (yìyǐ), referring to Job's tears, a type of grain-bearing grass. The character's structure pairs a broad semantic category with a phonetic element, clearly placing it within the domain of plant terminology.
Etymology Hide
