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葸 is a phono-semantic compound with the upper grass radical 艹 (indicating plants or vegetation) and the lower component 思, which means 'thought' and provides the phonetic value xǐ. Despite the plant radical, the character's primary meaning is fear, timidity, or cowardice, a semantic gap likely due to phonetic borrowing or an etymological shift that obscured any original botanical sense. It appears most often in the compound 畏葸 ('to cower in fear'), underscoring its psychological application rather than any reference to physical vegetation.
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