horsefly; gadfly
Refers to large biting flies of the family Tabanidae, especially those that bother livestock and humans.
In summer, many horseflies appear at the pasture.
I got bitten by a horsefly at the ranch.
I was bitten by a horsefly and my arm swelled up.
The cow is swishing its tail to chase away the horseflies.
counter for small animals · counter for rolls of cloth · archaic counter for horses · roll of cloth
Standard kanji spelling for horsefly/gadfly.
Katakana spelling is common in everyday writing, as the word is usually written in kana.
Outdated kanji form; rarely used in modern Japanese.
The origin is uncertain. The kanji 虻 is a phono-semantic compound with 虫 (insect) and 亡 (lost, dead), but the historical derivation of the reading あぶ is unclear.