芝

Glyph origin
– a type of plant.

Definitions

 * 1) lingzhi;

Kanji

 * 1) turf, lawn, grass

Etymology 1


From. One of the oldest attested words in the Japanese language, used in the Man'yōshū and Nihon Shoki.

This character usually means a type of in Chinese. However, it was also used phonetically in (modern 🇨🇬), and it seems that the Japanese use of this character for the sense of  may have come from this sesame sense in Chinese.

Noun

 * 1) grass, turf, green
 * : hiding in the grass and spying on one's enemies or scouting out the situation; a spy in the grass
 * : hiding in the grass and spying on one's enemies or scouting out the situation; a spy in the grass
 * : hiding in the grass and spying on one's enemies or scouting out the situation; a spy in the grass

Verb

 * 1) short for : to hide in the grass and spy on one's enemies or scout out the situation

Etymology 2
Compound of. The kanji was used as an ateji, probably based on its on'yomi of shi.

Noun

 * 1)  “shi-type”, referring to the i adjective in Japanese grammar, specifically the, corresponding to modern Japanese adjectives ending in -i but not -shii
 * This is the nomenclature used in the grammar devised by 富士谷成章 (Fujitani Nariakira), a classical Japanese scholar and grammarian in the middle Edo period. Modern i adjectives still had the ending in -shi in the mid-Edo period, hence Fujitani's description of these as the “shi-type” of adjective.

Etymology 3
From. Compare modern 🇨🇬.

Affix

 * 1) the  mushroom

Etymology 4
Used as ateji in various surnames.