一切經音義 29.44

29.44

Mosquitoes and gnats (蚊蜹): The upper character is pronounced *wen* (蚊). The *Shuowen [jiezi]* says: 'A flying insect that bites people; [some write it] with the insect radical 䖵 as 螡, or with "dusk" (昬) as 蟁, meaning that it comes out at dusk (𧊈), hence it takes 𧊈.' The scripture writes it with 虫 and 文, which is a popular variant. The lower character has the fanqie *ér* + *ruì* (蜹). The *Guoyu* says: 'Gnats, moths, bees, and scorpions are all spoken of as capable of harming people.' Gu Yewang says: 'Small flying insect pests that like to get into wine. There is also a small insect resembling a gnat that bites people fiercely, called the midge (蟆子). It has other names as well, but the texts are too numerous to record, and the *Fangyan* records them in detail.' In the *Shuowen [jiezi]*, it is a phono-semantic compound.