蓬 (péng): fleabane (a plant of family Ast…

Meanings

1 fleabane (a plant of family Asteraceae)
2 disheveled; unkempt
3 clump (of plants); puff (of smoke, ashes)

Characters

蓬

péng

fleabane; disheveled

Examples

她的头发蓬蓬的，很可爱。

Tā de tóufa péngpéng de, hěn kě'ài.

Her hair is fluffy and cute.

蓬松的棉花糖很受小孩喜欢。

Péngsōng de miánhuatáng hěn shòu xiǎohái xǐhuan.

Fluffy cotton candy is loved by children.

Tips

usage

蓬 is most commonly seen in compounds: 蓬松 (fluffy), 蓬勃 (vigorous/booming), 蓬头垢面 (disheveled and dirty). As a surname it's pronounced Péng.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant (top radical)

Top grass radical, the compressed 3-stroke form of 艸. As the indexing radical it places 蓬 in the plant family (花 flower, 草 grass, 葬 burial) and signals that the entry word is a herbaceous species - fleabane, a wild composite plant whose tangled mass of stems also gave us 蓬乱 disheveled.

phonetic

逢 féng

to meet; to encounter (here phonetic)

Bottom 逢 supplies the sound féng → péng, an f/p alternation common in this phonetic series (also 篷 awning, 缝 to sew). Its own image - a walking-foot 辶 meeting a 夆 - adds a faint flavour of stems running into one another, fitting the bushy, tangled mass that fleabane forms in the wild.