Origin

This character combines the rice radical 米 on the left, which signals that the character relates to grain or powder-like substances, with 庄 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. In ancient times, cosmetics were often made from powdered rice and other grain-based materials, so using the rice radical made sense for a character meaning cosmetics or adornment. The 庄 component doesn't contribute to the meaning but tells readers roughly how to pronounce the character.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).