About
The character 孓 (jué) is a visual variant of 子 (zǐ, "child"). Its form suggests a child with one arm missing, mirroring 孑 (jié), which lacks the left arm. Historically, it conveyed a sense of being short or solitary. Today, it appears almost exclusively in the compound 孑孓 (jiéjué), the biological term for mosquito larvae. Here, the characters' shapes evoke the insects' wriggling movement in water.
Etymology Hide
