About
The character "猕", used in the modern term "猕猴" for macaque, originates from its traditional form "獼", structured with the beast radical 犭 on the left to indicate an animal category and the component 彌 on the right functioning primarily as a phonetic element. In the simplified character, the right side is replaced by 尔, which similarly serves a phonetic role. Historically, the character has denoted a type of monkey, with its meaning specifically associated with macaques, and its structural composition consistently pairs a semantic radical with a phonetic component to convey both category and pronunciation.