About
The character 鼱 is a phono-semantic compound formed by the semantic radical 鼠 (shǔ), meaning "rodent", and the phonetic component 青 (qīng), which indicates the pronunciation. It specifically denotes the shrew, a small mammal traditionally classified alongside rodents. This structure combines the category of small mammals with a sound element to form a precise zoological term. In modern usage, the character appears almost exclusively in the compound 鼩鼱 (qújīng) for "shrew", maintaining a strict biological meaning without metaphorical extensions.