一切經音義 69.100

69.100

Mosquitoes and gnats (蚊蜹: the upper character [蚊] is pronounced wu-fen fan; the Shuowen writes it as 蟁: "A flying insect that bites people; it takes 䖵 as semantic and 民 as phonetic." The lower character [蜹] is pronounced er-rui fan; the Guoyu says: "Gnats, moths, bees, and scorpions can all harm people." Gu Yewang says: "There is currently an insect resembling a gnat that bites people, which is called 'containing venom'; it is this very thing." The Shuowen says: "Qin calls it 蜹; Chu calls it 蚊; it takes 虫 as semantic and 芮 as phonetic").