松 | sōng

In Mandarin Chinese, 松 (Pinyin: sōng) is a noun meaning “pine”. 松 is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 木 (“wood”) and phonetic 公 (gōng).

Lawrence J. Howell explains in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters that 松 is a

公 open + 木 tree/wood → pine tree (species with “open” fronds).

Some compounds of 松 include

• 松 + 木 = 松木 (sōngmù): pine wood
• 松 + 子 = 松子 (sōngzǐ): pine nut
• 松 + 花 = 松花 (sōnghuā): pine pollen
• 松 + 果 = 松果 (sōngguǒ): pine cone
• 松 + 针 = 松针 (sōngzhēn): pine needle
• 松 + 鼠 = 松鼠 (sōngshǔ): squirrel

A combination of 松 with 山 (mountain), 松山, is a common placename in China (Sōngshān), Japan (Matsuyama) and Korea (Songsan). In Japanese, there is a beautiful word 松風 (松 + 風), matsukaze, which means “wind blowing through pine trees” or “the sound of such winds”. Matsukaze is a famous Noh play by Kan’ami Kiyotsugu (1333—1384).

Incidentally, the symbol above were created using Canarian pine 松针.

More photos related to pines @ Shutterstock.