1sprout; young plant emerging from the soil (Kangxi #45)
2indexing radical for early-shoot and grass-related characters
Tips
history
屮 (chè) was the original pictograph of a single shoot pushing up through the ground. Doubling it gives 艸 (cǎo, grass), the modern 草. Outside dictionaries it almost never appears on its own — it lives inside compound forms.
mistakes
Don't confuse 屮 with 山 (shān, mountain) or 中 (zhōng, middle). 屮 has a curving central stroke meant to suggest a tender stem, while 山 has three peaks.
Radical
SproutKangxi #45
Pictograph of a young plant breaking the soil. Rare as an indexing radical in modern dictionaries — most former 屮-class characters are now filed under 艸/草 (grass). Survives mainly inside compounds where it hints at growth, vegetation, or springing forth.
