About
The character 砗 (traditional form 硨) is a phono-semantic compound: the semantic radical 石 (stone) indicates the hard, shell-like texture of the specimen, while the phonetic component 车/車 provides the pronunciation. It functions as a bound morpheme, used only in the compound 砗磲, which refers to the giant clam, a large marine bivalve historically valued for its thick shell, used in carving and ornaments.