About
The character "狳" is a phono-semantic compound formed with the animal classifier radical 犭 and the phonetic component 余, which guides its pronunciation. It exists almost solely within the disyllabic term "犰狳", a loanword for the armadillo, and was likely coined to transliterate the sound of the foreign name. Since its formation, the character's meaning has remained fixed within this zoological reference without developing separate semantic applications.