多种
duō zhǒng · HSK 4
many kinds of
🎨 多 = many + 种 = kind/seed; many kinds
多 means 'many' and 种 means 'kind' or 'seed/type'. Together 多种 literally reads as 'many kinds', covering meanings like multiple, diverse, or the multi- prefix.
多 — two 夕 (evening) stacked
多 originally depicted two pieces of meat (夕, a variant of 肉) stacked together, suggesting abundance. Over time it was reanalyzed as two 'evenings' piled up — many evenings meaning many days, hence 'many, much'. The doubling itself conveys quantity.
种 — grain radical 禾 + heavy 重 (phonetic)
种 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 禾 (grain) gives the meaning, while 重 supplies the sound. Originally it referred to seeds and the act of sowing grain, then broadened to 'kind' or 'type' (a category, like a strain of seed). In simplified Chinese it also absorbed the traditional 種.