蒐

A phono-semantic compound consisting of:

艸 (grass) — semantic component, suggests gathering plants or natural things;

鬼 (ghost) — phonetic component, supplying the sound (수 / sōu).

Originally, the character likely referred to gathering herbs or plants.

Semantic development:

- to gather plants;

- to collect items;

- to assemble systematically;

- to search and gather (overlapping with 搜).

The semantic field overlaps with collecting, searching, and harvesting.

In Korean, 蒐 appears mainly in classical vocabulary. Modern usage prefers 收.

수집 (蒐集) — collection (classical form; modern standard uses 收集)

수렵 (蒐獵) — hunting (archaic/literary)

The character is rare in modern simplified Chinese.

In many modern texts, 蒐 is replaced by more common characters with similar pronunciation (搜 / 收).

It retains historical value in classical writing and specialized vocabulary.

Related characters:

搜 — to search

收 — to receive; to collect

集 — to gather