About
The character "鲥" designates the Reeves' shad, a fish noted for its seasonal migration. Its structure is a phono-semantic compound where the semantic component "鱼" classifies it as a fish, and the phonetic component "时" suggests its pronunciation. The traditional form "鰣" is analogously composed of "魚" and "時". The presence of the element meaning "time" in both forms etymologically connects to the fish's predictable annual appearance. While the character's form has varied between these iterations, its core meaning has consistently referred to this specific species without semantic expansion or drift.