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The character 穵 is an early alternative written form of the common character 挖, meaning to dig. Structurally, it is a phono-semantic compound: the semantic radical 穴 (cave, hole) is positioned at the top, representing the cavity resulting from digging, while the lower component 乙 serves as a phonetic marker. Unlike the standard 挖, which utilizes the hand radical (扌) to emphasize the physical human action of digging, the variant 穵 instead focuses on the spatial outcome by using the hole radical. The primary meaning is the removal of earth or material to create an opening.
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