About
猸 is a phono-semantic compound created to designate a specific animal native to East Asia: a species of badger. Structurally, it pairs the dog or animal radical 犭 on the left, marking the character as a beast or mammal, with the phonetic component 眉 on the right, which provides the pronunciation. This character was constructed relatively late, specifically to name the hog badger and similar mustelids in regional vocabularies, rather than evolving from ancient pictographs. As a result, its definition has always been restricted entirely to this narrow zoological meaning, without any extended or metaphorical uses throughout its history.
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