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缫 denotes the agricultural process of reeling silk threads from boiled silkworm cocoons. The traditional form 繅 is a phono-semantic compound: the semantic radical 糸 on the left signals silk or textiles, and the phonetic component 巢 on the right means 'nest', supplying the sound while also evoking the cocoon's nest-like structure. In the simplified character 缫, the silk radical is shortened to 纟, while the phonetic 巢 remains intact. The term's usage is highly specific, referring almost exclusively to this silk-extraction method.
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