noun #26,535

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 taro
  2. 2 Colocasia esculenta

Examples

Yù tou shì yī zhǒng chángjiàn de gēn jīng lèi shūcài.
Taro is a common root vegetable.
Tā zuò le yùní tiándiǎn, fēicháng měiwèi.
She made a taro paste dessert that was very delicious.

Tips

usage
alone is the botanical term; in everyday speech, taro is usually called 芋头 (yùtou). 山芋 can refer to sweet potato in some dialects. In Taiwanese and Cantonese cuisine, taro features heavily in both savory and sweet dishes.

Components

radical
cǎo
grass; plant (top radical)
Top grass radical (Kangxi #140 in its 3-stroke compressed form), marking as a plant. Taro is a tuberous edible plant cultivated since antiquity, so the botanical tag is literal. Same family: flower, grass, tea, apple.
phonetic
at; in
Bottom supplies the sound, yú to yù with tone shift. The 'at, in' preposition meaning is not transferred; is purely a sound tag here. Same phonetic family includes cosmos, bowl, roundabout.

Stroke Order