Definitions
surname Zi
(archaic) field recently opened for cultivation; (literary) to weed
Etymology
About
The character 菑 is structurally composed of the semantic radical 艹, indicating a connection to vegetation, combined with the phonetic component 甾. Its original meaning centered on agricultural land, specifically referring to a field in its first year of cultivation or land being prepared for planting. Over time, the character's semantic range broadened to encompass the concept of disaster, a shift that likely occurred through association with the difficulties of land clearance or via phonetic borrowing from other terms denoting calamity.
Etymology Hide
