甘草 (gān cǎo) — licorice (root, used in traditional Chinese med… | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

licorice (root, used in traditional Chinese medicine)

Examples

甘草。
gān cǎo Shì yì zhǒng cháng yòng de zhōng yào.
Licorice is a commonly used Chinese medicine.
甘草。
Zhè ge yào fāng lǐ fàng le hěn duō gān cǎo.
This prescription contains a lot of licorice.
甘草。
gān cǎo De tián wèi kě yǐ yòng lái tiáo wèi.
The sweetness of licorice can be used for seasoning.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

甘 means sweet and 草 means herb, together naming the sweet licorice herb.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

甘 originally drew an open mouth with something sweet inside it. This gives the sense of sweet or pleasant.

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

艹早草

Meaning part形符xíngfú

艹Written in full as艸cǎograss; plant

Sound part声符shēngfú

早

早zǎo草cǎo

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

草 pairs 艹 (grass; plant) with 早, which gives the sound. The form originally referred to another word and was later used for the grass sense.

Appears in

Plants & Flowers Traditional Medicine & Philosophy

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