穗 (suì) · ear (of grain) - head of wheat, rice, etc.

Measure Word

一个穗 gè

Meanings

1 ear (of grain) - head of wheat, rice, etc.
2 tassel; fringe (decorative)
3 (capitalised) abbreviation for Guangzhou (广州)

Characters

穗

suì

ear of grain; tassel

Examples

HSK 6

灯笼下挂着红色的穗子。

Dēnglong xià guà zhe hóngsè de suìzi.

Red tassels hang beneath the lantern.

HSK 7-9

稻穗已经金黄了。

Dào suì yǐjīng jīnhuáng le.

The rice ears have already turned golden.

Tips

culture

穗 is the official one-character abbreviation for Guangzhou (广州). Local nicknames trace back to the city's founding myth, in which five immortals rode goats bearing rice ears (穗) as gifts - hence Guangzhou's other name 五羊城 ("Five Goats City").

Components

radical

禾 hé

grain; cereal

Left grain radical (Kangxi #115) - pictograph of a stalk of grain with the drooping ripe head at the top, an indexing marker for cereal crops. Anchors 穗 in the agricultural family alongside 秧 (seedling), 稻 (rice plant), 稳 (stable, originally of grain), 秋 (autumn harvest). The ear-of-grain meaning is signalled the instant you see the radical.

phonetic

惠 huì

kindness; favour (here phonetic)

Right 惠 supplies the sound - huì shifted to suì, an irregular but well-attested drift. 惠 itself pictures a heart given freely; the 'kindness' meaning has no role here. The character then reads as 'the swelling, ripening part of the grain' - the ear. Guangzhou took 穗 as its city abbreviation from the legend of Five Immortals bringing grain ears.