About
The character 龌 is a phono-semantic compound conveying the concept of physical dirtiness or, by extension, moral pettiness and foulness. Its traditional form, 齷, combines the teeth radical 齒, evoking the sensation of teeth grinding or being set too close, with the phonetic component 屋, which guides its pronunciation. In the simplified form 龌, the complex radical is replaced by 齿. Originally describing a dental condition, the character’s meaning broadened over time to denote extreme squalor or despicable behavior. It now appears almost exclusively within a fixed binome used to describe grimy conditions or contemptible character.