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The traditional character for hedgehog, "蝟", is composed of the "虫" insect radical and the phonetic component "胃", but this representation was semantically mismatched given the mammal's nature. This led to the modified form "猬", which replaces the "虫" radical with "犭", the animal radical, while preserving "胃" as the phonetic element, thereby aligning the character's structure with the creature's classification without altering its core meaning.
Etymology Hide
