Definitions
to sting
Etymology
About
蠚 (hē or huò) is a verb meaning 'to sting', referring to the painful action of venomous insects such as bees, wasps, and scorpions. It is a phono-semantic compound with the insect radical 虫 (chóng) below, indicating its relation to insects or arthropods, and the phonetic 𦰩 (hē) above. Originally, it referred specifically to the act of an insect injecting venom, distinct from a mammal's bite. Its usage was confined to nature descriptions, medical texts on stings, and poetic metaphors for sudden pain. Over time, 蠚 became a rare variant, replaced by the simpler 螫 (shì) for 'to sting', and now survives mostly in classical dictionaries.
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