一切經音義 35.33

35.33

㲲縷 [Cotton thread] (The pronunciation of the upper character is 牒 [dié]. It is the flower-down of a Western grass, like the carded thistle-down of this country twisted into thread to make cloth; formed from 毛 (hair) with 疊 as phonetic, or written with the silk radical as 𥿛. Originally there was no such character; the translators of the sūtras invented it as an expedient, so it has no fixed form. The fanqie of the lower character is 力 + 宇 [lǚ], namely the thread used by weavers. The Shuowen says: "縷 means thread; formed from 糸 (silk) with 婁 as phonetic." The fanqie of 撚 is 年 + 典 [niǎn]).