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钅 is the simplified left-side radical form of 金, used in characters relating to metals, weaponry, and metalworking. Its traditional counterpart 釒 is a bound form of 金, a character that originally depicted nuggets of metal hidden in the earth. As a bound component, 钅 cannot stand alone; it combines with phonetic elements to create phono-semantic compounds naming metals, tools, and chemical elements. The reduced stroke count streamlines the writing of the many metallic terms in the lexicon.
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