About
The Chinese character 鲒 is a phono-semantic compound, with the semantic radical 鱼 on the left indicating its category as fish or seafood, and the phonetic component 吉 on the right suggesting its pronunciation. Its traditional form is 鮚, using the unsimplified 魚 radical. The character refers not to a true fish, but to a type of bivalve mollusk, such as a clam or oyster, reflecting the historical practice of grouping shelled marine life under the fish radical.
Etymology Hide
