About
The character 鼯 is a phono-semantic compound designating the flying squirrel, a nocturnal gliding rodent. Its semantic component is the radical 鼠 (rat/rodent) on the left, which classifies the creature as a small mammal. The phonetic component 吾 on the right provides the pronunciation "wú". This character is used almost exclusively in the compound word "鼯鼠" to name this specific animal, showing consistent usage from historical texts to modern zoology without developing abstract or metaphorical meanings.