Chinese character 莮

In Taiwan posts from 2025–2026, it can mock a man. The slang labels a stereotyped man; examples target male Taiwan People’s Party supporters and the wider blue-white political camp. Some posts also play on plant imagery with 草男 and 草食男, the Japanese-derived “herbivore man” label. The target depends on the thread, so ask what the sender means when context is thin.

Where does 莮's plant meaning come from?

The oldest dated record in this trail is a plant name. The Chinese character dictionary 玉篇 records 萓莮草; a scholarly account dates the book to around 543. Later character dictionaries give related plant glosses. This is the earliest dated evidence named here, not a date for the character’s creation.

The entries connect 萓莮 and 宜莮 with 萱草, and another gloss links the plant to 鹿葱; older botanical writing sometimes grouped these plants, while later works distinguished them. Pre-modern folklore held that wearing 萱草 flowers was thought to help a pregnant woman bear a son, echoing 宜男, an auspicious name meaning “favorable for a son.”