穗 (suì): ear (of grain) — head of wheat,…

Measure Word

一个穗 gè

Meanings

1 ear (of grain) — head of wheat, rice, etc.
2 tassel; fringe (decorative)
3 (capitalised) abbreviation for Guangzhou (广州)

Characters

穗

suì

ear of grain; tassel

Examples

稻穗已经金黄了。

Dào suì yǐjīng jīnhuáng le.

The rice ears have already turned golden.

灯笼下挂着红色的穗子。

Dēnglóng xià guà zhe hóngsè de suì zi.

Red tassels hang beneath the lantern.

Tips

culture

穗 is the official one-character abbreviation for Guangzhou (广州). Local nicknames trace back to the city's founding myth, in which five immortals rode goats bearing rice ears (穗) as gifts — hence Guangzhou's other name 五羊城 ("Five Goats City").

Components

radical

禾 hé

grain; cereal

Left grain radical (Kangxi #115) — pictograph of a stalk of grain with the drooping ripe head at the top, an indexing marker for cereal crops. Anchors 穗 in the agricultural family alongside 秧 (seedling), 稻 (rice plant), 稳 (stable, originally of grain), 秋 (autumn harvest). The ear-of-grain meaning is signalled the instant you see the radical.

phonetic

惠 huì

kindness; favour (here phonetic)

Right 惠 supplies the sound — huì shifted to suì, an irregular but well-attested drift. 惠 itself pictures a heart given freely; the 'kindness' meaning has no role here. The character then reads as 'the swelling, ripening part of the grain' — the ear. Guangzhou took 穗 as its city abbreviation from the legend of Five Immortals bringing grain ears.