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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

蛛絲馬跡

/ʈ͡ʂu⁵⁵ sɹ̩⁵⁵ mä²¹⁴⁻²¹ t͡ɕi⁵¹/
clue; trace; tiny hints
  • 蛛絲馬迹
  • 蛛丝马迹
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Origin

The phrase 蛛絲馬跡 is composed of four characters. The character 蛛 is a short form used in 蜘蛛 (spider) and consists of the semantic component 虫 (insect) and the phonetic component 朱 (cinnabar; vermilion). The character 絲 means silk, such as fiber or cloth, and contains the component 糸 (thin silk).

The character 馬 means horse. The final character, 跡, means footprint, trace, or mark; it is formed with the semantic component 足 (foot) and the phonetic component 亦 (also; too; likewise; still). According to the MOE Dictionary, the phrase is used to represent clues or signs that can be searched for or investigated to find the root of a matter.

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

此詞彙由四個漢字組成。其中「蛛」字用於「蜘蛛」或作為其簡稱，由表示昆蟲的「虫」作為意符，並由「朱」作為音符；「絲」字由「糸」組成，意指絲綢、纖維或布料；「馬」字指馬；「跡」字則由表示腳的「足」作為意符，並由「亦」作為音符，意指足跡、痕跡或印記。

根據《國語辭典》，此成語是用來比喻可以尋查推求事情根源的線索或跡象。

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • characterChinese蛛 “used in 蜘蛛 (zhīzhū, “spider”); also used as its short form”
    • meaningChinese虫 “insect”
    • soundChinese朱 “cinnabar; vermilion”
  • characterChinese絲 “silk (fibre, cloth, fabrics, etc.)”
    • ideaChinese糸 “thin silk”
  • characterChinese馬 “horse (Classifier: 匹 m c; 隻／只 m c h mn; 條／条 h)”
  • characterChinese跡 “footprint; trace; mark”
    • meaningChinese足 “foot”
    • soundChinese亦 “also; too; likewise; still”
Wiktionary etymology text

No etymology text yet. The graph shows what is known from the sources.

Meanings

phrase
  1. clue; trace; tiny hints

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 比喻可以尋查推求事情根源的線索或跡象。 例：警方在現場搜尋，希望能找到些蛛絲馬跡，以提供破案的線索。

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

Sources

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0