About
The character 鳝 is a phono-semantic compound meaning 'eel'. The semantic component 鱼 on the left indicates a fish or aquatic creature, while the phonetic 善 on the right gives the pronunciation shàn. Its traditional form, 鱔, uses the unsimplified 魚 radical. 鳝 refers to eels, especially the Asian swamp eel (Monopterus albus), and functions as a concrete zoological noun in biological and culinary settings; it has no figurative uses.
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