About
The character 鼹 (traditional form 鼴) is a phono-semantic compound representing the mole, a burrowing insectivorous mammal. Its left component 鼠 ("mouse" or "rodent") provides the semantic classification within small mammals. In the traditional form, the right component 匽 supplies the pronunciation, while the simplified version replaces this with the phonetic component 晏. This character is primarily used to identify the mole, most often appearing in the compound 鼹鼠 to denote the animal known for its subterranean lifestyle.