黍

黍 (Kangxi radical 202, 黍+0, 12 strokes, cangjie input 竹木人水 (HDOE), four-corner 2013₂, composition ⿳禾𠆢氺)

1. Kangxi radical #202, ⿉.

• Appendix:Chinese radical/黍
• 潻, 𧑓, 𧬠, 𪏦, 㓿, 𨞃, 𬓸, 𩁄, 𪆜, 𪒚, 𧒁, 𩡠, 𮫑, 𪋩, 𪎭

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1517, character 25
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 47991
• Dae Jaweon: page 2049, character 33
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 7, page 4759, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9ECD

Pictogram (象形). A cereal 禾 with water 水 or kernels under it. The water may symbolize the wine made from millet or the fact that millet sticky and water-resistant; otherwise, given that millet is a resistant plant that can grow on dry ground, the "water" component remains unexplained. See 黎, in which the radical appears as a contracted form.

Schuessler (2007) minimally reconstructs Old Chinese *nhaʔ, comparing it to Tibetan ནས་ (nas, “barley”). STEDT provisionally reconstructs Proto-Sino-Tibetan *nas (“highland barley”).

However, Baxter and Sagart (2014) reconstruct Old Chinese *s-tʰaʔ based on aspirated affricate reflexes in certain Mandarin dialects, e.g. Hefei tʂʰu³, Yangzhou tsʰu³, as well as sound gloss evidence from Shuowen. This would make the comparison to Tibetan less plausible.

黍

1. proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) (especially glutinous varieties, but also generic^[1])

   • 我蓺黍稷。我黍與與、我稷翼翼。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
     我蓺黍稷。我黍与与、我稷翼翼。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11^th – 7^th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Wǒ yì shǔ jì. Wǒ shǔ yúyú, wǒ jì yìyì. [Pinyin]

     That we might plant our broomcorn millet and foxtail millet; that our broomcorn millet might be abundant, and our foxtail millet luxuriant.

2. (dialectal Eastern Min, Putian Puxian Min) sorghum
3. (Leizhou Min) corn; maize

• 黃米／黄米 (huángmǐ)

• (Min Nan) “黍”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.

(Hyōgai kanji)

• Go-on: しょ (sho)
• Kan-on: しょ (sho)
• Kun: きび (kibi, 黍)、きみ (kimi, 黍)

• 黍(しょ)稷(しょく) (shoshoku)
• 鶏(けい)黍(しょ) (keisho)
• 蜀黍(モロコシ) (morokoshi)

/kimi/ → /kibi/

Shift from earlier kimi.^[1][2]

First cited to a text from 1241.^[1]

• (Tokyo) きび [kíꜜbì] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1][3][4][5]
• IPA^(key): [kʲibʲi]

黍(きび) or 黍(キビ) • (kibi) 

1. common or proso millet, Panicum miliaceum
2. synonym of 蜀黍 (morokoshi): sorghum
3. synonym of 玉蜀黍 (tōmorokoshi): corn, maize

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as キビ (kibi).

⟨ki₁mi₁⟩ → */kʲimʲi/ → /kimi/

From Old Japanese.

The proso millet was introduced to Japan in the Yayoi period.^[1]

黍(きみ) • (kimi) 

1. (obsolete) the common or proso millet, Panicum miliaceum
   • Shōsōin, text available online here:

     小豆二升〈十八文〉伎美二升〈百←十二文〉

     Two masu of adzuki beans (18 coins); two masu of millet (100 ← 12 coins)

     [Note: The arrow is not included in the Jidai-betsu Kokugo Daijiten citation.]

2. (obsolete) synonym of 玉蜀黍 (tōmorokoshi): corn, maize

• “^▲黍”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[3] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2025

黍 • (seo) (hangeul 서, revised seo, McCune–Reischauer sŏ, Yale se)

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

From Proto-Japonic *kimi.

The proso millet was introduced to Japan in the Yayoi period.^[1]

黍 (ki₁mi₁) (kana きみ)

1. the common or proso millet, Panicum miliaceum
   • c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 16, poem 3834:
     ^[2][1]

     成棗寸三二粟嗣延田葛乃後毛將相跡葵花咲

     nasi natume₂ ki₁mi₁ ni apa tugi₁ papu kuzu no₂ no₂ti mo apamu to₂ apupi₁ pana saku

     Like pears, jujubes, and millet coming after the foxtail millet and creeping arrowroots, [we] meet later when the mallow-flowers bloom.

• Japanese: 黍 (kimi → kibi)

黍: Hán Nôm readings: thử

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