田 | tián

In Mandarin Chinese, 田 (Pinyin: tián 🔊) is a noun that means “field”, “paddy” or “farmland”. 田 “is one of the 1000 most commonly used words” in the Collins Chinese Dictionary. Some compound words of 田 include

• 水 + 田 = 水田 (shuǐtián): rice paddy
• 油 + 田 = 油田 (yóutián): oil field
• 山 + 田 = 山田 (shāntián): archaic term for low-quality farmland. In Japanese, 山 (yama) + 田 (ta) is a stereotypical family name Yamada (as in My Neighbors the Yamadas)
• 田 + 鼠 = 田鼠 (tiánshǔ): vole
• 田 + 鸡 = 田鸡 (tiánjī): frog; more specifically, the Chinese edible frog (Hoplobatrachus rugulosus), called “chicken of the field” due to the similarity in taste

As a radical, 田 is found in many hanzi. We’ve seen it in 苗 “seedling” (grass emerging from a field), 男 “man” (working the field used to be a man’s job) and 黄 “yellow” (presumably, colour of earth).

More photos related to fields and sea glass @ Shutterstock.