Definitions
(ape); (shell)
Etymology
About
蠗 is a phono-semantic compound denoting a type of caterpillar or crawling insect in classical texts. It combines the insect radical 虫 on the left with 翟 on the right, which gives the sound zhuó and independently means the long tail feathers of a pheasant. The feather meaning may have secondarily evoked a caterpillar with long, hair-like bristles or tufts resembling feathers, a detail that reflects the descriptive richness of Chinese character formation.
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