薏 (yì) · Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi)

Meanings

1 Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi)
2 used in 薏苡 yìyǐ and 薏米 yìmǐ - the grain

Characters

薏

yì

Job's tears (grain)

Examples

HSK 6

薏米可以煮粥喝。

Yìmǐ kěyǐ zhǔ zhōu hē.

Job's tears can be cooked into porridge.

HSK 7-9

夏天人们喜欢喝薏仁汤。

Xiàtiān rénmen xǐhuan hē yìrén tāng.

In summer people like to drink Job's-tears soup.

Tips

usage

薏 rarely stands alone - it almost always appears in 薏米 ('Job's tears grain'), 薏仁, or the original literary 薏苡. The grain is a staple of traditional Chinese medicine, said to dispel dampness.

memory

Note the 艹 (grass) radical on top - like 茶/草/苹, this signals a plant. The phonetic 意 ('meaning') gives the sound.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant

Grass radical on top, the indexing component. It pictures two small sprouts side by side and marks 薏 firmly as botanical - specifically the grass Coix lacryma-jobi, whose hard seeds (薏米 or 薏苡) appear in soups and Chinese medicine. Same cap on 茶 tea, 草 grass, 苗 seedling.

phonetic

意 yì

idea; intent

Bottom 意 supplies the sound exactly - same syllable, same tone. Pure phonetic role, no semantic carryover from 'idea/intention' to 'Job's tears grain'. The compact frame 艹-on-top of 意 below is a common layout.