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The Chinese character 檑 is a phono-semantic compound: the left-side radical 木 means 'wood' and indicates the meaning, while the right-side component 雷 means 'thunder' and supplies the pronunciation. It was coined to name a heavy wooden log, sometimes studded with metal spikes, that ancient defenders would roll down hills or from city walls to crush attacking enemies. The wood radical points to the weapon's material, and the phonetic 雷 provides the sound without additional semantic contribution.
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