About
The character 鹚 is a phono-semantic compound used to name a specific waterbird. Its traditional form, 鷀, combines the phonetic component 茗 (providing the "ci" pronunciation) with the semantic bird radical 鳥, placing it within the category of birds. It appears almost exclusively in the binomial 鸬鹚, the cormorant, a large diving bird historically trained for fishing in parts of East Asia. This structure follows the standard naming convention for birds, pairing a classifier with a phonetic element to identify the species.
Etymology Hide
