蟹 (xiè): crab

Measure Word

一只蟹 zhī

Meanings

1 crab

Characters

蟹

xiè

crab

Examples

秋天是吃蟹的好季节。

Qiūtiān shì chī xiè de hǎo jìjié.

Autumn is a great season for eating crab.

这只蟹真大！

Zhè zhī xiè zhēn dà!

This crab is really big!

螃蟹横着走路。

Pángxiè héng zhe zǒulù.

Crabs walk sideways.

Tips

usage

蟹 is the literary/formal character for crab. In everyday speech, 螃蟹 (pángxiè) is far more common. 蟹 alone appears mostly in compound words: 蟹黄 (crab roe), 蟹肉 (crab meat), 大闸蟹 (hairy crab).

memory

The character has 虫 (insect/creature) at the bottom — crabs are classified alongside insects and creepy-crawlies in Chinese radical logic.

Components

radical

虫 chóng

insect; bug

Bottom insect radical — pictograph of a coiled creature. The indexing radical: in classical zoology 虫 covered all small invertebrates, including crustaceans. 蟹 sits firmly inside this radical family alongside 蝎 scorpion, 虾 shrimp, 蚌 clam, 蛛 spider — all the small armored or crawling creatures.

phonetic

解 jiě

to dissect; to untie (phonetic)

Top 解 supplies the sound — jiě drifting to xiè through j/x palatalisation. 解 depicts two hands separating an ox's horn (角) from its body (牛), hence 'to dismember.' The cutting-apart imagery echoes crab anatomy — diners take crabs apart joint by joint.