鼠 shǔ rat
rat; mouse
How it came to be
A rat seen from the side: the head with its sharp front teeth at the top, the paws and the long tail below.
How it is used
- Bound in modern speech - the actual everyday word for the animal is 老鼠 lǎoshǔ, not 鼠 alone.
- 鼠 is one of the 12 zodiac animals (子鼠 as the first sign) and appears as a formal/technical element in compounds like 鼠标 shǔbiāo "computer mouse."