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箕 is a phonosemantic compound: 竹 (bamboo) sits atop 其, which provides the sound. Originally, 其 was a pictograph of a basket; the bamboo radical was added later to emphasize the material. The character denotes a winnowing basket, a flat, open-ended bamboo tool used in agriculture to separate chaff from grain by tossing. In traditional Chinese astronomy, it also names the Winnowing Basket, one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions within the Azure Dragon grouping.
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