鼬
yòu

weasel

Phonosemantic compound. 鼠 represents the meaning and 由 represents the sound.

Components

鼠
鼠 Meaning component
shǔ rat
由
由 Sound component
yóu cause

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhanglɯwɢs

說文解字

如鼠，赤黃而大，食鼠者。从鼠由聲。

Sources

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