荼 (tú): bitter edible plant (esp. sowth…

Meanings

1 bitter edible plant (esp. sowthistle)
2 white flowers of reeds and rushes
3 (figurative) suffering; cruelty

Characters

荼

tú

bitter herb; white reed-flower; suffering

Examples

战火如火如荼。

Zhànhuǒ rúhuǒrútú.

The war raged like a roaring blaze.

百姓饱受荼毒。

Bǎixìng bǎoshòu túdú.

The common people suffered cruel oppression.

Tips

usage

荼 is almost never used alone in modern Chinese. You'll meet it in two fixed expressions: 如火如荼 (rúhuǒ-rútú — 'like fire, like white reed-flowers' — 'in full swing, raging') and 荼毒 (túdú — literally 'bitter herb plus poison-insect' — 'to cruelly oppress').

history

In classical texts 荼 originally meant a bitter wild green eaten by the poor — 谁谓荼苦 ('who says the sowthistle is bitter?', 《诗经·邶风·谷风》). The white-flower sense came from茅 (máo — cogon grass) flowers, which are how Chinese armies historically described pale-clad troops mixed with red-armored ones.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant (top form)

艹 is the grass radical 艸 in compressed top form. It marks 荼 as a wild edible plant — bitter sowthistle, white reed flowers, weedy growth. Joins 茶莱荠茄 — characters for plants both useful and unwelcome.

phonetic

余 yú

surplus; I (literary)

余 supplies the sound (yú drifted to tú). The same phonetic powers 涂途徐除. Note: 荼 (tú) and 茶 (chá) are nearly identical — 茶 lost one stroke when split off as a separate character for the tea plant in Tang times.