About
The character 玳 appears only in the word 玳瑁, referring to the hawksbill sea turtle and its shell, a prized material for decorative objects and jewelry. As a phono-semantic compound, its left radical 王 (originally meaning jade) places it among precious materials and ornamental gems. The right component 代 provides the pronunciation but does not contribute to the meaning. Since it is never used alone, its function is entirely linked to 玳瑁 to denote this specific luxury material.