芋

芋 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 廿一木 (TMD) or 難廿一木 (XTMD), four-corner 4440₁, composition ⿱艹于)

• 𭇻, 𰱕, 𧋪, 𮐆

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1018, character 8
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 30670
• Dae Jaweon: page 1476, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3174, character 3
• Unihan data for U+828B

• Unihan data for U+2F990

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 芋 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• 芋 (Cantonese)
• 芋 (Wu)

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *ɢʷa, *ɢʷas) : semantic 艸 (“grass; plant”) + phonetic 于 (OC *ɢʷa) – taro.

Unclear. Shuowen suggests that the word arises from the startling size of the taro, leading Kai Xu to connect it to 吁 (OC *qʰʷa), which is the sound that one makes when one is startled. However, this seems to be folk etymology.

Compare Proto-Hmong-Mien *wouH (“taro”), Burmese ဝ (wa., “elephant foot yam”), Tibetan གྲོ་མ (gro ma, “Argentina anserina (syn. Potentilla anserina), a plant with small edible tubers”). There are various theories on how all these words are related:

• Schuessler (2007) considers it to be an areal word, comparing it to the Hmong-Mien and Burmese words. Schuessler (2015) does not consider the Tibetan word to be cognate.
• Blench (2012) suggests that the Chinese word is borrowed from Proto-Hmong-Mien and that the Burmese word may be a late loan from Old Chinese.
• STEDT reconstructs Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g/s-rwa (“taro; yam; tuber”), whence the Tibetan word. This etymon is regarded as allofamically related this word and 薯 (OC *djas).
• Gong Hwang-cherng (2002) and Baxter and Sagart (2017) also suggest that this word is related to the Tibetan word.

芋

1. taro

芋

1. ^‡ (of grass) lush; luxuriant

芋

1. ^‡ large; great
2. ^‡ to have

芋

1. Used in 芋尹 (yǔyǐn).
2. Alternative form of 宇 (yǔ, “to live; to reside”)

(Jōyō kanji)

• Go-on: う (u)
• Kan-on: う (u)
• Kun: いも (imo, 芋, Jōyō)、うも (umo, 芋)

From Middle Chinese 芋 (MC hjuH). Recorded as Middle Korean 芌/우〯 (wǔ) (Yale: wu) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

芋

Wikisource

芋 (eumhun 토란 우 (toran u))

1. hanja form^? of 우 (“taro”)

芋 (eumhun 클 후 (keul hu))

1. (literary Chinese) hanja form^? of 후 (“large; great”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

芋: Hán Nôm readings: dụ, vu

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