Shakespeare’s Juliet says: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  But its Chinese name is surprising.

玫瑰 (méi guī) is the Chinese for “rose.” 

What is surprising is that both characters refer to a stone rather than a plant.

The “radical” is the part of a Chinese character that usually hints at its meaning; the rest of the character usually hints at how it is pronounced (though the way people speak has changed a lot in 3000+ years!).  For example:

With 瑰 (guī – the second half of “rose”) we have:

• 玉 on the left is the radical and means “jade” or, by extension, any precious stone
• 鬼 on the right is pronounced “guǐ” and means “ghost”

If you Think Chinese, you’d say: “瑰 represents a precious stone that sounds like ghost.”

So how has it come to represent a flower?  The《说文解字》(shuō wén jiě zì) dictionary from AD100 described the 瑰 (guī) gemstone as purplish-red, perfectly round, and with a layered structure that allowed it to be peeled into thin flakes.  When people saw a rose flower, that gemstone is what it reminded them of.  

The same dictionary described the 玫 (méi) gemstone as “a beautiful fire-coloured pearl.”  By putting the names of these two similar looking gemstones together, Chinese makes clear they are not talking about either gemstone but rather about something else that reminds them of both.

This article is written by Tim Nash @ ZipF