Definitions
name of a tribe; socks; stockings
Etymology
About
The character 靺 is a phono-semantic compound formed with the semantic component 革, indicating leather, and the phonetic component 末. Its original sense was a red dye derived from plants and used in leather treatment. Over centuries, the character became chiefly employed in the historical ethnonym 靺鞨, designating a people of ancient Manchuria, thus moving from a material reference to a proper noun while retaining its structural link to leather.