崽 (zǎi): young animal

Measure Word

一只熊崽 zhī

Meanings

1 young animal
2 cub
3 offspring
4 (dialectal) child / kid

Characters

崽

zǎi

young animal / offspring / kid (dialectal)

Examples

母熊带着熊崽在森林里觅食。

Mǔ xióng dài zhe xióng zǎi zài sēnlín lǐ mìshí.

The mother bear foraged in the forest with her cubs.

你这兔崽子，又惹麻烦了！

Nǐ zhè tùzǎizi, yòu rěmáfan le!

You little brat, you've caused trouble again!

Tips

usage

崽 is standard for animal offspring (熊崽 = bear cub, 猪崽 = piglet) and is also used in southern Chinese dialects for children. In northern slang, 兔崽子 is a mild insult meaning 'little rascal'. The word itself is not vulgar.

Components

radical

山 shān

mountain

Mountain radical on top gives the indexing radical but is etymologically loose — 崽's animal-cub sense has nothing to do with mountains. The radical was assigned more for visual filing than meaning; one reading sees the mountain as evoking the wilderness where young animals are born.

phonetic

思 sī

think; consider

Bottom supplies the sound: sī → zǎi (substantial drift, a regional reading kept in dialect). 思 is purely phonetic and contributes no meaning. 崽 is heavily used as a Hunan/Sichuan dialect word for 'child' and as a suffix for young animals (狗崽, 猪崽), so the dialect reading is what stuck.