HSK Guide

部首 179the leek; chives, a perennial garden vegetable

jiǔ (third tone, dipping)

the leek; chives, a perennial garden vegetable

部首 1799 画0 汉字

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.

汉字 filed under

No published character on HSK Guide is filed under this radical yet. 汉字库.