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餮 is a phono-semantic compound character conveying extreme gluttony and insatiable greed. Its lower portion, the food radical 食 (shí), provides the semantic category of eating and consumption. The upper portion is a complex phonetic element incorporating 歹 (dǎi), which governs the character's pronunciation. Almost never encountered alone, it appears in the compound 饕餮 (tāotiè). This name belongs to a legendary ravenous beast frequently depicted on ancient ritual bronzes as a caution against greed, transforming a basic human need into a symbol of mythological excess.
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