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The character 昴 is a phono-semantic compound, made up of the semantic component 日, which denotes the sun and celestial bodies and thereby categorizes the word under astronomy and timekeeping, and the phonetic component 卯, placed below to indicate the sound. Its meaning is narrowly restricted to the Pleiades star cluster, specifically the lunar mansion of that name in traditional Chinese astronomy. Throughout its history, the character has served purely as an astronomical proper noun, never developing any colloquial or figurative uses.
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