蓬 (péng) · fleabane (a plant of family Asteraceae)

Meanings

1 fleabane (a plant of family Asteraceae)
2 disheveled; unkempt
3 clump (of plants); puff (of smoke, ashes)

Characters

蓬

péng

fleabane; disheveled

Examples

HSK 3

她的头发蓬蓬的，很可爱。

Tā de tóufa péngpéng de, hěn kě'ài.

Her hair is fluffy and cute.

HSK 7-9

蓬松的棉花糖很受小孩喜欢。

Péngsōng de miánhuatáng hěn shòu xiǎohái xǐhuan.

Fluffy cotton candy is loved by children.

Tips

usage

蓬 is most commonly seen in compounds: 蓬松 (fluffy), 蓬勃 (vigorous/booming), 蓬头垢面 (disheveled and dirty). As a surname it's pronounced Péng.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant (top radical)

Top grass radical, the compressed 3-stroke form of 艸. As the indexing radical it places 蓬 in the plant family (花 flower, 草 grass, 葬 burial) and signals that the entry word is a herbaceous species - fleabane, a wild composite plant whose tangled mass of stems also gave us 蓬乱 disheveled.

phonetic

逢 féng

to meet; to encounter (here phonetic)

Bottom 逢 supplies the sound féng → péng, an f/p alternation common in this phonetic series (also 篷 awning, 缝 to sew). Its own image - a walking-foot 辶 meeting a 夆 - adds a faint flavour of stems running into one another, fitting the bushy, tangled mass that fleabane forms in the wild.