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鹋 is a phono-semantic compound and the simplified form of 鶓, combining the phonetic 苗 ('seedling, sprout') with the semantic radical 鸟 ('bird') to classify it as an avian term. The traditional character uses the fuller bird radical 鳥, while the simplified version replaces it with 鸟. This character refers to the emu, a large flightless bird native to Australia that was unknown in early Chinese civilization, and it was created in modern times purely as a phonetic tool, appearing only in the disyllabic loanword 鸸鹋 to approximate the animal's foreign name.
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