About
The character "蛞" is a phono-semantic compound formed by the semantic radical 虫, denoting insect or worm-like creatures, and the phonetic component 舌, which indicates the pronunciation "kuò". It appears almost exclusively in the binome "蛞蝓", referring to a shell-less terrestrial mollusk or slug. Etymologically, the character was constructed to represent this animal in written Chinese, and its meaning has remained specifically tied to that referent without significant alteration. The structural composition of 虫 and 舌 has persisted as the standard form in its orthographic history.