甲骨文之「■」字長期被學者釋為「鼉」，認為是指商代的一種鱷魚，將字形分解為上部從「單」作為聲符，下部從「■」作為形符，近年有學者認為這個字的上部形體為昆蟲的觸角，下部的形體為甲蟲，不能將二者拆分開來看，並結合相關辭例將其讀為「蛂」。 　　本文認為此字上部的字形可能與「冬」有關，下部的形體則為甲蟲形，應當將此字視為「螽」的正面形體，實際上指的是後世文獻的「螽斯」，且為甲骨文「秋」字的一種同體異形字。甲骨文常見的「冬（終）」字，其造字構形可能來源於割裂甲骨文「螽」字的上部形體，也有可能「冬」形另有他源，在「■」構形中作為追加聲符。

　　The graph ■ in the oracle bone inscriptions (OBI) had for a long time been read as tuó(鼉), a name for a crocodilian species from the Shāng perion. Scholars used to analyze it as a conjunction of a phonetic component dān(單) and a semantic (pictographic) component ■. Recently, some scholars have re-interpreted ■ as an indivisible pictographic character representing the word bié(蛂) (an insect species). 　　This article in turn proposes to view the upper part of ■ as a component 冬(dōng or zhōng) and the lower component as a shape of an insect. The author points out that the character should have originally represented the word zhōng(螽) (a katydid, bush cricket), a variant depiction of which also constitutes the character for qiū(秋) “autumn” in the OBI. The graph 冬, commonly used in the inscriptions for the word zhōng “to end”, may have come from a dissection of the original pictograph ■. It is also possible that 冬 has a different origin altogether, and was superimposed on ■ as a purely phonetic component.

鼉; 螽; 甲骨文; 冬

tuó(鼉) (crocodilian species); zhōng(螽) (a cantydid); oracle bone insctiptions; zhōng(冬) (to end)