■ radical

zū

to rent

How it’s built

Phonosemantic compound. 禾 represents the meaning and 且 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "land tax". The meaning later shifted to "rent" and "hire".

禾

meaning

grain

且

sound

moreover — The pronunciation of 租 was similar to 且 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes.

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