糙 (cāo) · rough, coarse (in texture), crude / careless

Meanings

1 rough
2 coarse (in texture)
3 crude / careless

Characters

糙

cāo

rough / coarse / crude

Examples

HSK 5

这篇文章写得太糙了，需要修改。

Zhè piān wénzhāng xiě de tài cāo le, xūyào xiūgǎi.

This article is written too carelessly and needs revision.

HSK 5

糙米比白米更有营养。

Cāomǐ bǐ báimǐ gèng yǒu yíngyǎng.

Brown rice is more nutritious than white rice.

HSK 6

他的手因常年干活变得很糙。

Tā de shǒu yīn chángnián gànhuó biàn de hěn cāo.

His hands became very rough from years of manual labor.

Tips

usage

糙 can describe physical texture (rough surface, unpolished grain) or figurative crudeness (rough work, careless writing). The compound 糙米 meaning 'brown rice' is very common.

memory

糙 contains the rice radical 米 on the left - think of unpolished, coarse rice to remember its meaning of rough or crude.

Components

radical

米 mǐ

rice; grain

Left indexing rice radical - four grains around a central cross, the standard pictograph of dehusked rice. Anchors 糙 in the grain family with 粒 (grain), 粉 (powder), 粗 (coarse). Original meaning: unpolished brown rice still wearing its bran.

phonetic

造 zào

to make; produce

Right side 造 supplies the sound - zào shifted to cāo through onset alternation. The 'making / fabricating' meaning is a faint bonus: rice barely processed, made just enough to eat. The 'rough, coarse, careless' senses all descend from that under-finished grain.