蚕

蚕 (Kangxi radical 142, 虫+4, 10 strokes, cangjie input 竹大中一戈 (HKLMI) or 一大中一戈 (MKLMI), four-corner 2013₆, composition ⿱天虫)

• 𱐈, 𰯁, 𧍦, 𧎕, 𥱄, 䘉, 𮇀

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1077, character 38
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 32869
• Dae Jaweon: page 1546, character 31
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2837, character 2
• Unihan data for U+8695

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *zluːm, *hl'iːnʔ) : phonetic 天 (OC *qʰl'iːn) + semantic 虫 (“insect”).

蚕

1. Only used in 蜸蚕 (qiǎntiǎn, “earthworm”).

• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), B04234

(Sixth grade kyōiku kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 蠶)

1. silkworm

• Go-on: ぞん (zon)^{←ぞん (zon, historical)←ぞむ (zomu, ancient)}、てん (ten)
• Kan-on: さん (san, Jōyō)^{←さん (san, historical)←さむ (samu, ancient)}、てん (ten)
• Kun: かいこ (kaiko, 蚕, Jōyō)、こ (ko, 蚕)

Compound of 飼い (kai, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of 飼う (kau, “to raise”)) +‎ 蚕 (ko, “silkworm”).^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

• (Tokyo) かいこ [káꜜìkò] (Atamadaka – [1])^{[1][3][4][7][8]}
• IPA^(key): [ka̠iko̞]

蚕(かいこ) or 蚕(カイコ) • (kaiko) ^{←かひこ (kafiko)?}

1. the silkworm (Bombyx mori)
2. the larva of a silkworm
3. sericulture
4. (cant) silk (of clothing)

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as カイコ.

Some sources derive this from 子 (ko, “child”),^[9] but the pitch accents do not match.

• (Tokyo) こ [kóꜜ] (Atamadaka – [1])^[10]
• IPA^(key): [ko̞]

蚕(こ) • (ko) 

1. (obsolete) silkworm

蚕 • (cheon, jam) (hangeul 천, 잠, revised cheon, jam, McCune–Reischauer ch'ŏn, cham, Yale chen, cam)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.