蚓
yǐn

earthworm

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

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
引
引 Sound component
yǐn to pull

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartyinX[ɢ](r)ə[r]ʔearth-worm (khjuw.yinX)
Zhengzhanglinʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica