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The character 鸩 (traditional: 鴆) is a phono-semantic compound: the radical on the right, 鳥 or simplified 鸟, signals its meaning of 'bird', while the left component 冘 is a phonetic indicator. Originally, it referred to a legendary bird in Chinese mythology whose feathers were so toxic that steeping them in liquor produced a lethal and untraceable poison. Through metonymy, the term shifted from the bird to the poisoned wine, and then evolved into a verb meaning to kill by poison, broadening from a specific creature to a general concept of deadly toxins and assassination.
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