Translingual

Han character

蒜 (radical 140 艸+10, 16 strokes, cangjie input 廿一火火 (TMFF), four-corner 4499₁)

References

• KangXi: page 1048, character 22
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 31562
• Dae Jaweon: page 1510, character 4
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 5, page 3259, character 13
• Unihan data for U+849C

Chinese

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *sloːns) : semantic 艸 + phonetic 祘 ‎(OC *sloːns).

Etymology

Matisoff considers this to be derived from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *swa-n ‎(“garlic”), but more likely this may be a plant imported from the Western Regions in the Qin–Han era. The relatively late attestation and the earlier form of 卵蒜 (luǎnsuàn) attest to the latter theory.

Compare Sanskrit लशुन ‎(laśuna), Pali lasuṇa, lasuna. The Old Chinese reconstruction was revised to a *-or rhyme in the Baxter–Sagart system, akin to its homophone 算 (“to calculate”). Hence compare Persian سیر ‎(sir, “garlic”), Khotanese sārmā- ‎(“the plant Basella cordifolia or B. lucida or B. rubra”), Hungarian sárma ‎(“Ornithogalum sp.”), as well as (controversial) Proto-Altaic *sera ‎(“a kind of garlic”) (Turkish sarımsak, Mongolian саримс ‎(sarims)).

Either way this word is cognate with the second syllable of Burmese ကြက်သွန် ‎(krakswan, “onion”), ကြက်သွန်ဖြူ ‎(krakswanhpru, “garlic”).

Pronunciation

Definitions

蒜

1. garlic

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Readings

• On: さん (san)
• Kun: ひる (hiru), のびる (nobiru)

Korean

Hanja

蒜 • ‎(san) (hangeul 산, revised san, McCune-Reischauer san, Yale san)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.