蜗蜒
wō​yán

snail

蜗 wō a snail Simplified

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect

mollusk

呙
呙 Sound component
guō, wāi, hé chat

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

蜒 yán, yàn, dàn millipede

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

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
延
延 Sound component
yán delay

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhanglan
Unicodedhěn

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

蝸 wō a snail Traditional

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

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
咼
咼 Sound component
chat

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkwæk.rˤoj (dialect: *k.rˤ- > *kˤr-)snail
Zhengzhangkroːl
kʷroːl

說文解字

蝸蠃也。从虫咼聲。

Sources

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