TSUMUGU · C1 (est.) · 字
荒
荒 ＝ 艸 ＋ 巟
ㄏㄨㄤ · huāng
adj/noun — desolate, overgrown; wasteland; absurd
字源 FORM — what the parts do
艸義grass on top (writes as 艹)
巟聲huāng — gives the sound亡 over 川 — a flooded, drowned river
Grass (艸) over 巟 huāng, which sets 亡 (lost, gone) above 川 (a river) — water gone wild, washing the land bare. Grass takes over what people leave: overgrown, desolate. From land run to weeds: 荒蕪、荒地、饑荒; and from waste run loose, the absurd — 荒唐、荒謬.
故事 STORY — a scene to remember it by
河（川）漫了，人都走光（亡），野草（艸）一片片長過來——荒。
The river (川) floods, the people gone (亡), and the weeds (艸) creep over everything — 荒.
字源記憶法
意 · Meanings
(本義)蕪、荒蕪— overgrown, gone to weeds
→荒地、荒廢— wasteland; left to ruin常用
⇒饑荒、荒年— a famine, a lean year
⇒荒唐、荒謬— absurd, wild
(本義) original meaning · → ⇒ each arrow = one more step of extension