蚕

See also: 蠶

蚕 U+8695, 蚕 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-8695 ← 蚔 [U+8694] CJK Unified Ideographs 蚖 → [U+8696]

Translingual

Han character

蚕 (radical 142, 虫+4, 10 strokes, cangjie input 竹大中一戈 (HKLMI) or 一大中一戈 (MKLMI), four-corner 2013₆, composition ⿱天虫)

References

• KangXi: page 1077, character 38
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 32869
• Dae Jaweon: page 1546, character 31
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2837, character 2
• Unihan data for U+8695

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Chinese

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (天) (Zhengzhang, 2003)
	Old Chinese
添	*tʰiːm
忝	*l̥ʰiːmʔ, *l̥ʰiːms
悿	*tʰiːmʔ
舔	*l̥ʰiːmʔ
菾	*diːm
天	*qʰl'iːn
吞	*qʰl'iːn, *qʰl'ɯːn
祆	*qʰliːn
蚕	*zluːm, *hl'iːnʔ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *zluːm, *hl'iːnʔ): phonetic 天 (OC *qʰl'iːn) + semantic 虫 (“insect”).

Etymology 1

For pronunciation and definitions of 蚕 – see 蠶 (“silkworm”). (This character, 蚕, is the simplified form of 蠶.)

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Etymology 2

simp. and trad.		蚕
variant forms		𧉂

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): tiǎn (tian³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄊㄧㄢˇ

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Pinyin: tiǎn
    • Zhuyin: ㄊㄧㄢˇ
    • Wade–Giles: t'ien³
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: tean
    • IPA ^(key): /tʰi̯ɛn²¹⁴/

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• Middle Chinese: /tʰen^X/▼

Rime
Character	蚕
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	透 (6)
Final (韻)	先 (85)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	IV
Fanqie	他典切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/tʰenX/
Pan Wuyun	/tʰenX/
Shao Rongfen	/tʰɛnX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/tʰɛnX/
Li Rong	/tʰenX/
Wang Li	/tʰienX/
Bernard Karlgren	/tʰienX/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	tiǎn

• Old Chinese▼

  (Zhengzhang): /*hl'iːnʔ/

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	蚕
Reading #	2/2
No.	12390
Phonetic component	天
Rime group	眞
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	腆
Old Chinese	/*hl'iːnʔ/
Notes	見爾雅

Definitions

蚕

1. Only used in 蜸蚕 (qiǎntiǎn, “earthworm”).

References

• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), B04234

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Japanese

Shinjitai	蚕
Kyūjitai	蠶

Kanji

蚕

(grade 6 “Kyōiku” kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 蠶)

1. silkworm

Readings

• Go-on: ぞん (zon)^{←ぞん (zon, historical)←ぞむ (zomu, ancient)}; てん (ten)
• Kan-on: さん (san, Jōyō)^{←さん (san, historical)←さむ (samu, ancient)}; てん (ten)
• Kun: かいこ (kaiko, 蚕, Jōyō); こ (ko, 蚕)

Etymology

Kanji in this term
蚕
かいこ Grade: 6
kun’yomi

Noun

蚕 (hiragana かいこ, katakana カイコ, rōmaji kaiko)

1. the silkworm (Bombyx mori)

Usage notes

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts, as カイコ.

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Korean

Hanja

蚕 • (cheon, jam) (hangeul 천, 잠, revised cheon, jam, McCune–Reischauer ch'ŏn, cham, Yale chen, cam)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.