yuán / yán
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 lilac daphne (Daphne genkwa), used in Chinese herbal medicine

Examples

Yán huā shì yī zhǒng xiān kāihuā hòu cháng yè de zhōngyào.
Daphne flower is a traditional medicinal herb that flowers before it leafs.

Tips

register
The yuán reading appears in , a medicinal daphne shrub. This is a specialist botanical and pharmacy term; the everyday reading is yán in coriander (see the primary entry).

Components

radical
cǎo
grass; plant
is the grass radical, marking as a herb.
phonetic
yuán
first; primary
is the phonetic. It matches the yuán reading of this character directly; in the yán reading the sound has drifted.

Stroke Order

yuán