莴苣 (wō jù) — lettuce; asparagus lettuce (a variety with a th…

Definition

noun

lettuceasparagus lettuce (a variety with a thick edible stem)

Measure word · 棵

莴苣。
Wǒ mǎi le liǎng kē wō jù.
I bought two heads of lettuce.
莴苣，。
Nǐ qiè yí xià wō jù, zán men zuò shā lā.
Cut the lettuce, and we'll make a salad.
莴苣。
Zhè zhǒng wō jù de kǒu wèi hěn qīng xīn.
This type of lettuce has a very fresh taste.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

联绵liánmiánBound pair

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

莴wō

苣jù

The characters 莴 and 苣 carry no separate meaning here; together they name the lettuce plant.

Sound-only characters

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 萵; 莴 is its simplified writing.

艹咼萵

Meaning part形符xíngfú

艹Written in full as艸cǎoherbage

Sound part声符shēngfú

咼

咼wāi萵

Same sound today

The traditional form 萵 has 艹, herbage, and 咼, which supplies the sound; the simplified 莴 is a later shorthand.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in