爬虾
pá​xiā

mantis shrimp

爬 pá crawl, climb

Phonosemantic compound. 爪 represents the meaning and 巴 represents the sound.

Components

爪
爪 Meaning component
zhǎo, zhuǎ hand, claw
巴
巴 Sound component
ba, bā to wish

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartbae[b]ˤra climb on all fours

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart

虾 xiā shrimp Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 下 represents the sound. Simplified form of 蝦.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
下
下 Sound component
xià, xia under

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

蝦 xiā shrimp Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 叚 represents the sound.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
叚
叚 Sound component
jiǎ, xiá false

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthæ[ɡ]ˤrahae-mae frog; shrimp
Zhengzhangqʰraː
ɡraː
Unicodeha

說文解字

蝦蟆也。从虫叚聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)