薇

薇 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+13, 19 strokes, cangjie input 廿竹人大 (THOK), four-corner 4424₈, composition ⿱艹微)

• 𫲛, 𧢤

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1060, character 21
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 32092
• Dae Jaweon: page 1524, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3303, character 12
• Unihan data for U+8587

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *mrɯl, *mɯl): semantic 艸 (“grass; plant”) + phonetic 微 (OC *mɯl).

薇

1. Osmunda regalis, a species of fern (also known as royal fern or flowering fern)

   • 陟彼南山、言采其薇。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad. and simp.]

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

     Zhì bǐ nánshān, yán cǎi qí wēi. [Pinyin]

     I ascended that hill in the south, and gathered the royal ferns.

2. used in 薔薇／蔷薇 (qiángwēi, “multiflora rose”)

• 蕨 (jué, “bracken, eagle fern”)

(Hyōgai kanji)

• Go-on: み (mi)
• Kan-on: び (bi)
• Kun: ぜんまい (zenmai, 薇)

• 薔薇(ばら) (bara): rose

Uncertain. Theories include:

• Shift from 銭舞 (zeni mai, literally “coin + twirling / spinning”), from the way the fiddleheads look like rotating or twirling coins
• Shift from 銭巻き (zeni maki, literally “coin + roll”), from the way the coil of a fiddlehead with the hole in the center looks like a traditional coin (which also has a hole in the center)^[1]
• Shift from 千巻き (sen maki, literally “thousand + roll”), from the way the repeating pattern of the fiddleheads look like a lot of small things in a roll

The "roll" derivation would align with the derivation of synonym 巻子 (makago).

First attested in 1709.^[2]

• (Tokyo) ぜんまい [zèńmáí] (Heiban – [0])^[3][4][5]
• IPA^(key): [d͡zẽ̞mːa̠i]

薇(ぜんまい) or 薇(ゼンマイ) • (zenmai) 

1. [from 1709] Japanese flowering fern (Osmunda japonica), of which the young fiddleheads are edible

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

• 発条・撥条 (zenmai, “clockwork spring”, from the visual similarity to a coiled fern fiddlehead)

• Entry at Nihon Jiten (in Japanese)

From Middle Chinese 薇 (MC mij). Recorded as Middle Korean 미 (mi) (Yale: mi) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Wikisource

薇 (eumhun 장미 미 (jangmi mi))
薇 (eumhun 고비 미 (gobi mi))

1. hanja form^? of 미 (“rose”)
2. hanja form^? of 미 (“Osmunda japonica”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典. [2]

薇: Hán Nôm readings: vi

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