潦草
liáo cǎo · HSK 7
illegible
✍️ 草 grass doubles as rough/careless (cf. 草率); 潦草 = scrawled, illegible writing
潦 carries the waterlogged-mess sense and 草 contributes the rough/draft meaning it has in 草率 (hasty). Together liáo cǎo describes work or handwriting done in a sloppy, slapdash way.
草 — grass radical 艹 + 早 (zǎo, phonetic)
草 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The top 艹 (grass radical, derived from 艸) gives the meaning 'grass' or 'plant', while 早 underneath supplies the sound. Originally 草 referred to a specific plant and acorn-like fruit, but it shifted to mean grass and vegetation broadly, and by extension 'rough' or 'draft'.