About
The character 猞, used solely in the compound 猞猁 for "lynx", is a phono-semantic construct with the 犭 radical signaling its animal classification and the 舍 component offering a phonetic approximation, likely coined to adapt a foreign term for this feline from sources such as Turkic or Mongolian languages into Chinese. Its structure has not altered, and its meaning has been consistently tied to denoting the lynx, without developing separate semantic functions beyond this zoological reference.