牛蒡 (niú páng) — greater burdock (Arctium lappa, a root vegetable used in East Asian cuisine)

Definition

noun
greater burdock (Arctium lappa, a root vegetable used in East Asian cuisine)

Examples

  • 牛蒡，。
    Wǒ mǎi le yì xiē niú páng, zhǔn bèi zuò tāng.
    I bought some burdock root and plan to make soup.
  • 牛蒡。
    niú páng Shì yì zhǒng cháng jiàn de shū cài.
    Burdock is a common vegetable.
  • 牛蒡。
    Zhè dào cài yòng le niú páng hé hú luó bo.
    This dish uses burdock root and carrots.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

牛niú
蒡bàng

牛 and 蒡 carry no separate sense here; together they name the burdock plant.

Sound-only characters

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

牛 is drawn as a bull's head, with two horns and two ears.

Open 牛 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
艸艸cǎograss; plant
Sound part声符shēngfú
旁
旁páng蒡
Same sound today

蒡 is built from 艸, for grass or plant, and 旁, which gives the sound.

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