Comets are commonly called 'broom-stars' in Chinese.
Tips
usage
The everyday word is 彗星 (comet) — that's where you meet 彗 in modern STEM writing. The colloquial nickname is 扫帚星 ('broom-star'), which preserves the character's original sense: a broom or whisk. Calling a person 扫帚星 is an old curse meaning 'jinx / bringer of bad luck' — never use it of a real person.
memory
Etymology mnemonic: two bristly tufts (the top) sweeping over 彐 (a hand) = a broom held in the hand. The sky's 'broom' is the comet, whose long bright tail looks like a sweep across the dark.
Components
pictograph
彗huì
broom; comet
Pictograph of a broom: two tufts of grass or bamboo bristles at the top, held by a hand (彐, the snout-hand element) at the bottom. Original sense was a sweeping broom; the astronomical sense 'comet' was extended because a comet's bright tail sweeps across the sky like a broom-stroke. Indexed under Kangxi #58 彐 in modern lookup tables.
Filed under radical 彐 (jì, #58) by convention. 彐 is not a separate component in 彗, so no strokes are highlighted.
