黍 (shǔ) · broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum); glutinous millet

Meanings

1 broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum); glutinous millet
2 (in northern dialect) yellow millet, 'huangmi' 黄米

Characters

禾 (grain stalk) over 水 (suggesting the sticky / wet quality of glutinous millet) - semantic hint at a grain that becomes glutinous when cooked.

Examples

HSK 7-9

北方人喜欢用黍米做年糕。

Běifāng rén xǐhuan yòng shǔ mǐ zuò niángāo.

Northerners like making New Year cake from glutinous millet.

HSK 7-9

黍稷重穋是古代主要的粮食。

Shǔ jì zhòng lù shì gǔdài zhǔyào de liángshi.

Millet varieties were the main grains of antiquity.

Tips

culture

黍 is one of the 五谷 (Five Grains) of classical China - alongside 稷 (foxtail millet), 麦 (wheat), 菽 (beans), and 稻 (rice). The 《诗经》 mentions 黍 dozens of times. Modern Chinese commonly calls it 黄米 (yellow millet) and uses it for sticky rice cakes, especially during festivals.

history

Archaeological remains of 黍 in north China date to over 8,000 years ago - predating both rice and wheat as a Chinese staple. Its Latin name Panicum miliaceum reflects this - the cereal that fed early agricultural villages along the Yellow River.

Components

semantic

禾 hé

grain stalk; cereal plant

Top 禾 - pictograph of a ripe grain stalk with the head bent over. It contributes the cereal meaning: 黍 is a specific kind of millet, so the grain plant sits above and waters it. 黍 is itself a Kangxi radical (#202), so 禾 here is a semantic helper rather than the indexing element.

semantic

人 rén

person (small middle marker)

Small 人 tucked under the grain - historically the contracted form of 入 (enter) or a stylised handful, marking the human action of harvesting and processing the millet. A tiny middle layer that bridges the grain plant above and the water-element below into one cooking scene.

semantic

氺 shuǐ

water (vertical-form variant)

Bottom 氺 - the vertical bottom form of 水 (water), used when water sits underneath rather than to the left. It contributes the wet, fermenting quality: glutinous broomcorn millet was the classical grain for brewing wine, so the picture is grain + person + water = the millet being soaked and fermented.

Radical

Millet Kangxi #202

An indexing radical for glutinous millet and a few sticky-grain derivatives. Compounds are rare and largely archaic: 黎 (multitudes / dark; originally millet-related), 黏 (sticky), 黐 (birdlime). The character itself preserves a stalk of grain (禾) above what looks like water - a visual cue for the millet's distinctive stickiness when cooked.