葱
cōng · HSK 7
scallion
🧅 Sounds like KONG — King Kong grabs a giant scallion like a club
The pinyin cōng rhymes with Kong. A scallion is the long green onion used in Chinese cooking, distinct from a round bulb onion. The character 葱 has the grass radical 艹 on top, marking it as a plant.
葱 — grass radical 艹 + 怱 (cōng, hurried)
葱 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The grass radical 艹 on top signals a plant, while 怱 below supplies the sound cōng. It originally referred to the green onion (scallion), and by extension came to name the color 'onion-green,' a fresh pale green.