Just to be clear, from what I can tell, 萌 means &quot;sprout&quot; as a verb, and has no noun sense. &quot;Sprout&quot; the noun appears to be 芽 (yá); so 豆芽 (dòuyá) &quot;bean sprouts&quot;.<p>萌 meaning cute isn&#x27;t just related, it&#x27;s a direct borrowing from Japanese.