119. The "Rice" Radical: 米

With six symmetrical strokes, the "rice" radical 米 looks simple, and that's no illusion. This radical really is that straightforward. Here's what I mean:

• The radical of the following autonomous kanji is called こめ:

米 (201: rice; United States; America (the continent); meter; "rice" radical)

The radical name こめ matches the kun-yomi of this kanji.

• In English, the name of this radical is "rice," again matching what we've seen of 米 as a stand-alone character.

• Aside from the 米 kanji, this radical always appears on the left side of Joyo characters, as in this example:

粘 (1679: sticky; tenacious)

In such cases, the Japanese radical name changes to こめへん, where -へん means "left side of a character." Note that the 米 becomes skinnier when it's shunted to the left.

• In most of the 10 Joyo kanji featuring this radical, the 米 actually means "rice." We'll explore several of those etymologies soon.

A Similar Radical

Henshall (who has supplied all the etymologies in this Radical Note) notes that at some point, people (the ancient Chinese, I suppose) mixed up these two shapes:

radical 119: 米, which represents a "grain-laden ear of rice"

radical 115: 禾, the "grain" radical, which is a pictograph of a "rice plant"   

I really can't understand what he's saying in his etymology of 米 (201) about the consequences of this mix-up, but we now have a cautionary tale and should avoid confusing these radicals ourselves!

Rice in Strange Places

There's rice in the restroom! Rice in cosmetics! Rice in the hair salon! It's all thanks to this kanji and its etymology:

粧 (1406: makeup; to adorn oneself)    

The 米 here symbolizes "white" and by association represents "face powder." The right side of this character acts phonetically to express "adorn," so all together we have "to adorn oneself with face powder." 

The word 化粧 (けしょう) means "makeup," or literally "makeup to change (one's appearance)," and serves as the root of 化粧室 (けしょうしつ: restroom). Euphemistically, that's the "room for powdering one's nose" or the like. Thanks to both of these words, signs with 粧 abound in airports.

Rice in Sugar

There's also rice in sugar! I had heard it was the opposite! Here's the story:

糖 (947: sugar)

This character combines 米 (rice) with 唐 (Tang China). The 唐 acts phonetically here to express "dry, heat" and probably also "to pound." Thus, 糖 once symbolized "heated (and pounded?) rice," referring to a type of sweet confection. Later, 糖 evolved to represent "sugar."

When 米 Actually Represents Rice

Here are some great examples of Joyo kanji in which our radical etymologically means "rice":

粉 (577: powder; flour)

In this context, the 分 on the right means "to divide or cut into minute pieces." Originally, 粉 meant "to reduce rice to powder." Later the meaning broadened to "powder."

粒 (1900: grain, granule; drop)

The 立 on the right acts phonetically to express "grain," leading 粒 to mean "grain of rice" in the past and later "grain" or "particle" in general.  

In the next etymology, our radical only kind of means "rice":

糧 (1912: supply of food)    

As "rice," this 米 symbolizes "food" in general. The 量 usually means "quantity" but acts phonetically here to express "road," also conveying "sack full of something." That "something" was "provisions for a journey." Eventually, 糧 came to mean "provisions" in general. 

Purity and Refinement

These three kanji involve purity and refinement or, conversely, coarseness:

精 (725: refining; semen; essence; detailed; energy, spirit)    

The apparent blue-greenness (青) on the right lends this kanji connotations of "fresh" and "pure," yielding "pure rice" overall. By extension, the character came to mean "to refine," "detail," "spirit," and "vitality."

粋 (1455: cool, chic; refined; essence; pure)    

The right side acts phonetically to express “pound, smash,” according to Henshall's newer edition. Together the two halves mean “rice well pounded and impurity-free,” which is to say “pure.” The meanings “smart” and “stylish” exist only in Japanese.

粗 (1508: coarse)    

The right-side phonetic conveys "to neglect" and probably "to accumulate." Originally, then, this character referred to "rice left neglected" (in a storehouse) and later broadened to mean "poor quality, coarse, rough."