nest, rookery, hive, cobweb, den
巣 centers on a structure built by animals for dwelling or breeding: a nest, hive, or den. The cobweb sense extends this to a spider's web as its home.
巣 is the modern simplified form of 巢. The older form depicts a bird's nest in a tree, with the top representing the nest and 木 (tree) below. The modern form replaces the top with a simplified shape while keeping 果 (fruit) at the bottom, which may have been influenced by the idea of a nest as a fruit-like structure in a tree.
The top ⺌ looks like a small nest with three eggs or twigs, and the bottom 果 (fruit) suggests something growing in a tree. Picture a bird's nest cradled in the branches like a piece of fruit.
For ソウ, imagine a bird sewing its nest together with twigs: sew -> ソウ, and the nest takes shape in the tree.
nest; rookery; breeding place; hive
den; haunt; hangout; nest; lair
old haunts; former homes
ovary
empty nest
beehive; hive; honeycomb
testicle
to leave the nest
birdhouse; nest box; bird box
focus; nidus; lesion
to build a nest; to nest
leaving the nest
spiderweb; spider web; spider's web; cobweb
building a nest
witches' broom (plant disease); hexenbesen
anthill; ant nest; ant colony
swallow's nest
cryptorchidism; undescended testicle
ovarian cancer; ovarian carcinoma
ovarian tissue freezing; ovarian cryopreservation