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鱾 is a phono-semantic compound: the simplified radical 鱼 (yú, 'fish') provides the semantic category, while 己 (jǐ) marks the pronunciation. It specifically denotes the nibbler (Girella), a marine fish common in East Asian coastal waters. The traditional form 魢 retains the phonetic 己 but uses the full fish radical 魚. The character follows the typical pattern for naming species, a semantic radical indicating the animal group paired with a phonetic, and its meaning stays strictly within biological and taxonomic domains, never acquiring metaphorical senses. It appears mainly in modern ichthyology, fishing terminology, and culinary contexts when referring to this coastal fish.
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