About
The character for silkworm, traditionally written as "蠶", is a phonosemantic compound combining the phonetic component "朁" with the semantic radical "蟲", meaning insect, which explicitly categorizes it as a creature. Over centuries, an alternative form "蚕" emerged, structurally reconfigured into the elements "天" (heaven) and "虫" (insect), a change that may reflect cultural perceptions of the silkworm as a beneficent insect granted by nature, yet this variant did not alter the core meaning. While the traditional construction emphasizes linguistic derivation, the simplified form leans toward a conceptual interpretation, but both graphs have consistently denoted the silkworm without semantic shift throughout their historical use.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
蚕宝宝吃桑叶。
我养了一些蚕。
蚕丝非常柔软。
春天是养蚕的季节。
蚕食现象在自然界很常见。
这些蚕正在吐丝作茧。
古代中国以丝绸闻名，而丝绸源于蚕。
通过观察蚕的生命周期，孩子们学到了自然知识。