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邬 is a phono-semantic compound, with its traditional form 鄔 combining the phonetic 烏 (simplified to 乌) on the left and the semantic radical 阝, a contracted form of 邑 meaning 'city' or 'settlement', on the right. This radical signals a place name, befitting its original use as the name of an ancient settlement or state in what is now Shanxi province. Later it became almost exclusively a surname derived from that locality, following a typical pattern for Chinese characters of geographic origin.
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