鼠 shǔ rat
rat; mouse
How it came to be
象形 · Pictogram
A drawing of the thing it means.
The oracle bone form is a picture of a rat or mouse; in the small seal its open mouth with teeth sits at the top.
用法
- Bound in modern speech: the actual everyday word for the animal is 老鼠 lǎoshǔ, not 鼠 alone.
- 鼠 is one of the 12 zodiac animals (子鼠 as the first sign) and appears as a formal/technical element in compounds like 鼠标 shǔbiāo "computer mouse."