About
The character "椟", with its traditional form "櫝", originally signified a small wooden box or casket, a meaning directly inferred from its semantic component "木" denoting wood. Structurally, it is a phono-semantic compound where the traditional right-hand component "賣" historically indicated the pronunciation "dú", while the simplified form substitutes this with "卖". Over time, the term's application broadened from specifically wooden containers to include boxes made of other materials, and it is most recognized in the enduring idiom "买椟还珠", which illustrates a misplacement of value by prioritizing the container over its contents.
Etymology Hide
