Origin

This character combines the grass radical at the top, which marks it as relating to plants and natural scents, with a sound component below that signals the pronunciation "kun." The combination of these elements—a plant indicator paired with the sound hint—creates a character that means fragrance or the act of sending forth a pleasant smell. Over time, the meaning expanded to include smoke, likely because smoke also drifts through the air like a scent. The grass radical made sense because many fragrances come from aromatic plants and herbs.

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