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Where does this extra stroke come from in the kanji for cicada? (lemm.ee)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by x4740N@lemm.ee to c/learnjapanese@lemmy.ml

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I'm wondering where this extra stroke came from in the kanji for cicada that I have highlighted and would like an explanation since it doesn't match up with the kanji radicals on kanshudo

https://www.kanshudo.com/word/%E8%9D%89/1387080?oq=%E8%9D%89

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[–] marilyn@mathstodon.xyz 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

@x4740N It looks normal to me? In general, 虫 means bug/insect. According to Wiktionary, it originally derived from an ancient Chinese snake glyph: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%99%AB

I didn't know about the etymology before, but it makes sense (given that 蛇 means "snake").

[–] x4740N@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

According to the Radicals for 虫 the stroke that I've highlighted doesn't come from them so I'm wondering what it is there for since the only Radicals for it are "丶" and "中"

[–] TheGuyTM3@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

from what i know, the kanji for "insect" is a fundamental radical itself, but if you really want a mnemotechnic, i'd say that 口 is the insect mouth biting an arm ム (not the real meaning of that but it kinda looks like an arm)

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