The etymology of traditional Chinese characters is very revealing – here is the background to ‘cicada’. The character is pronounced ‘chan’ [second tone] or ‘shan’ [second tone]. The left half of the character provides the meaning, while the right half provides the sound. The left half is defined as ‘insects, worms’ and is KangXi radical number 142. The right half is defined as ‘single, individual, lonely, lone’. The right half of the character is further divided into top half and bottom half. The top half represents the mouth radical repeated twice and is defined as ‘mouth, open end, entrance, gate’ – this part is presumably emphasising the song of the cicada. Below the two mouths are four squares sitting on top of a cross. The four squares represent the radical that is defined as ‘field, arable land, cultivated’ and the lower radical, the cross, represents ‘ten, tenth, complete, perfect’. Source – English Chinese dictionary at yellowbridge.com
