葯

See also: 藥 and 药

葯 U+846F, 葯 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-846F ← 葮 [U+846E] CJK Unified Ideographs 葰 → [U+8470]

Translingual

Han character

葯 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+9, 13 strokes in traditional Chinese and Korean, 12 strokes in mainland China and Japanese, cangjie input 廿女火戈 (TVFI), four-corner 4492₇, composition ⿱艹約)

Related characters

• 藥 (Orthodox traditional form of 葯 when it is used as a variant form - See etymology 2)
• 药 (Simplified form of 藥 in mainland China)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1046, character 12
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 31451
• Dae Jaweon: page 1507, character 13
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3259, character 9
• Unihan data for U+846F

Chinese

Etymology 1

trad.		葯
simp.		药*

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (勺) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
豹	*preːwɢs
趵	*preːwɢs, *preːwɢ
尥	*breːw, *b·reːwɢs
箹	*ʔreːwɢs, *ʔreːwɢ
杓	*plew, *pʰlew, *bljewɢ, *pleːwɢ
約	*ʔlewɢs, *ʔlewɢ
扚	*pleːwʔ, *pleːwɢ
釣	*pleːwɢs
瘹	*teːwɢs
芍	*ɡleːwʔ, *spʰlewɢ, *pl'ewɢ, *bljewɢ, *pleːwɢ
酌	*pljewɢ
灼	*pljewɢ
勺	*pljewɢ, *bljewɢ
彴	*pljewɢ
犳	*pljewɢ
妁	*pljewɢ, *bljewɢ
汋	*bljewɢ, *sbreːwɢ
仢	*bljewɢ
葯	*qlewɢ, *qreːwɢ
礿	*lewɢ
肑	*preːwɢ, *pleːwɢ
瓝	*breːwɢ
的	*pleːwɢ
靮	*pleːwɢ
馰	*pleːwɢ
玓	*pleːwɢ
魡	*pleːwɢ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *qlewɢ, *qreːwɢ): semantic 艸 (“plant”) + phonetic 約 (OC *ʔlewɢs, *ʔlewɢ).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): yào, yuè (yao⁴, yue⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄧㄠˋ, ㄩㄝˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): joek³

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: yào
    • Zhuyin: ㄧㄠˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: yào
    • Wade–Giles: yao⁴
    • Yale: yàu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: yaw
    • Palladius: яо (jao)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jɑʊ̯⁵¹/
      
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: yuè
    • Zhuyin: ㄩㄝˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: yuè
    • Wade–Giles: yüeh⁴
    • Yale: ywè
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: yueh
    • Palladius: юэ (jue)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ɥɛ⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: joek³
    • Yale: yeuk
    • Cantonese Pinyin: joek⁸
    • Guangdong Romanization: yêg³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jœːk̚³/

---

• Middle Chinese: 'aewk, 'jak

Rime
Character	葯	葯
Reading #	1/2	2/2
Initial (聲)	影 (34)	影 (34)
Final (韻)	覺 (10)	藥 (107)
Tone (調)	Checked (Ø)	Checked (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open	Open
Division (等)	II	III
Fanqie	於角切	於略切
Baxter	'aewk	'jak
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/ʔˠʌk̚/	/ʔɨɐk̚/
Pan Wuyun	/ʔᵚɔk̚/	/ʔiɐk̚/
Shao Rongfen	/ʔɔk̚/	/ʔiɑk̚/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/ʔaɨwk̚/	/ʔɨak̚/
Li Rong	/ʔɔk̚/	/ʔiak̚/
Wang Li	/ɔk̚/	/ĭak̚/
Bernhard Karlgren	/ʔɔk̚/	/ʔi̯ak̚/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	yue	yue
Expected Cantonese Reflex	ok3	joek3

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*[q]ˤrewk/

  (Zhengzhang): /*qlewɢ/, /*qreːwɢ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	葯	葯
Reading #	1/2	2/2
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	yào	yuē
Middle Chinese	‹ ʔæwk ›	‹ ʔjak ›
Old Chinese	/*[q]ˁrewk/	/*[q]ˁrewk/
English	Iris leaves	Iris leaves
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	葯	葯
Reading #	1/2	2/2
No.	11202	11208
Phonetic component	勺	勺
Rime group	藥	藥
Rime subdivision	2	2
Corresponding MC rime	約	渥
Old Chinese	/*qlewɢ/	/*qreːwɢ/
Notes	見九歌：芷

Definitions

葯

1. Angelica dahurica
2. orris root
3. leaf of the iris
4. leaf of the Angelica dahurica

See also

• 白芷 (báizhǐ, “Angelica dahurica”)

Compounds

• 聚葯雄蕊 / 聚药雄蕊
• 花葯 / 花药 (huāyào)

Etymology 2

Glyph origin

One of the 324 simplified characters introduced by the Republic of China (Kuomintang government) in 1935 as a simplified form of 藥 / 药 but was later retracted in 1936. Prior to that 葯 and 藥 / 药 were two homonyms that were not related with one another.

In the 1956 Chinese Character Simplification Scheme by the People's Republic of China, 葯 was once again listed as a simplified form of 藥 / 药 which was succeeded by 药 based on the radical simplification of 糹 / 纟 (sīzìpáng) to 纟 (sīzìpáng).

Definitions

For pronunciation and definitions of 葯 – see 藥 (“medicine; drug; pharmaceutical; substance used for a particular purpose; etc.”). (This character is the former (1935–1936) ROC simplified, former (1964–1986) first-round simplified, former (1969–1976) Singaporean simplified, and variant form of 藥).

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Usage notes

• In modern Taiwan, 葯 is still considered a variant form (異體字 / 异体字 (yìtǐzì)) of 藥 / 药.
• In mainland China, 藥 / 药, rather than 葯 is listed officially as the traditional form of 药.

References

• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), B03973
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A03590-006