About
The character 呙 is now primarily used as a surname and serves as the simplified form of the traditional character 咼. This traditional form is a phono-semantic compound, where the "口" (mouth) radical provides the meaning and "冎" (depicting a bone joint or skull) indicates the pronunciation. Originally, it conveyed the idea of a wry mouth, but its use later expanded phonetically to represent the surname Guo. In the simplified version, the inner "冎" component was replaced with "内", which changed its internal structure while preserving the outer "口" frame. As a standalone character today, its original anatomical meaning is rarely used; it functions mainly as a proper noun or as a phonetic component in other characters.
Etymology Hide
