韭 Radical 179 — the leek; chives, a perennial garden vegetable
jiǔ (third tone, dipping)
the leek; chives, a perennial garden vegetable
Radical 1799 strokes0 characters
Where the shape comes from
Rows of long, blade-like leaves rising from a single horizontal line for the ground — one of the few plant characters to draw the soil itself rather than the growth alone, a nod to the leek’s habit of sending up new leaves from the same root again and again without needing to be replanted. It survives almost entirely in one word, 韭菜, leeks, Chinese chives, still grown and cut this same repeating way in gardens today.
characters filed under 韭
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