糙 (cāo): rough

Meanings

1 rough
2 coarse (in texture)
3 crude / careless

Characters

糙

cāo

rough / coarse / crude

Examples

他的手因常年干活变得很糙。

Tā de shǒu yīn chángnián gànhuó biàn de hěn cāo.

His hands became very rough from years of manual labor.

这篇文章写得太糙了，需要修改。

Zhè piān wénzhāng xiě de tài cāo le, xūyào xiūgǎi.

This article is written too carelessly and needs revision.

糙米比白米更有营养。

Cāomǐ bǐ báimǐ gèng yǒu yíngyǎng.

Brown rice is more nutritious than white rice.

Tips

usage

糙 can describe physical texture (rough surface, unpolished grain) or figurative crudeness (rough work, careless writing). The compound 糙米 meaning 'brown rice' is very common.

memory

糙 contains the rice radical 米 on the left - think of unpolished, coarse rice to remember its meaning of rough or crude.

Components

radical

米 mǐ

rice; grain

Left indexing rice radical - four grains around a central cross, the standard pictograph of dehusked rice. Anchors 糙 in the grain family with 粒 (grain), 粉 (powder), 粗 (coarse). Original meaning: unpolished brown rice still wearing its bran.

phonetic

造 zào

to make; produce

Right side 造 supplies the sound - zào shifted to cāo through onset alternation. The 'making / fabricating' meaning is a faint bonus: rice barely processed, made just enough to eat. The 'rough, coarse, careless' senses all descend from that under-finished grain.