糠 (kāng): chaff; bran; husk

Meanings

苦日子里，人们半年靠糠菜充饥。

Kǔrìzi lǐ, rénmen bànnián kào kāngcài chōngjī.

In hard times people ate chaff and wild greens for half the year.

这个萝卜糠了，不好吃。

Zhège luóbo kāng le, bù hǎochī.

This radish has gone spongy inside and doesn't taste good.

usage

Besides meaning rice bran, 糠 works as a verb/adjective for vegetables that have dried out and turned spongy inside, as in 'this radish is 糠'.

radical

米 mǐ

rice; grain

米 is the rice radical, marking 糠 as the husk left over when grain is milled.

phonetic

康 kāng

healthy; at ease

康 gives the exact sound kāng. The bare 康 was in fact the original way to write 'chaff' before the rice radical was added for clarity.

糠 kāng