In Mandarin Chinese, 虫 (Pinyin: chóng) is a word for “insect”, “bug”, “worm”, or, in Old Chinese, an animal in general. A compound of 大 and 虫, 大虫 (dàchóng), means “large insect”, but also has another, “literary or dialectal, euphemistic” meaning: “tiger”. (Good thing they eventually came up with less ambiguous 虎.)
According to Wiktionary,
The character originally represented a type of venomous snake, while the derivative 蟲 represented worms and insects (or insect-like things). 虫 eventually came to represent worms and insects as well, and the character 虺 was created to represent the original meaning.
To me, 虫 on its own looks like a pictogram of a flying (from left to right) insect, and nothing like a snake. It is considered to be a ”simplified” form of the traditional character 蟲, however, it seems more logical to consider 蟲 a “complicated” form of 虫. After all, 蟲 is just a pile of three 虫s. Another meaning of 蟲, “plague of insects”, makes perfect sense then.
虫 is also a radical that is found in many other hanzi. We saw it before as a part of 風, the traditional form of 风 (fēng). This is because “Ancient Chinese thought insects appear with wind”.
More photos related to insects and sea glass @ Shutterstock.
