崽 (zǎi): young animal

Measure Word

一只熊崽 zhī

Meanings

1 young animal
2 cub
3 offspring
4 child / kid

Characters

崽

zǎi

young animal / offspring / kid (dialectal)

Examples

HSK 7-9

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.

HSK 7-9

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 to 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.