棷

Phono‐semantic or associative character composed of:

木 (tree / wood radical) — indicating the semantic field of wood, timber, trees or wooden objects.

取 (or elements of “取” series) as phonetic basis — the phonology section lists “Characters in the same phonetic series (取)” for 棷.

In early dictionaries:

Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字):

「棷，木薪也。」 — “kindling/wood fuel.”

Boy’a (博雅) adds:

「校棷柴也。」 — “to gather wood fuel.”

Thus the character originally referred to wood used as fuel — small timber, branches, kindling — consistent with the wood radical and the meaning “firewood / kindling.”

Over time, very limited usage led it to fall into rare/archaic character status, used primarily in textual and dictionary records rather than in common words.

The phonetic series includes 取 (qǔ), 趨 (qū), 棷 (zōu / sǒu) etc. This suggests historical phonology linking -u or -ou sounds.

Because the character is rare, many modern fonts and input methods may not support it easily; its appearance is mostly of interest in classical lexica and digital character collections.

Some sources suggest variant meanings: marsh, small-leaf tree, or wooden staff/rod, showing that the semantic domain may have included wooden implements and fuel.

Because the character is rare and archaic, it does not feature widely in modern compounds. No standard modern vocabulary (Korean, Japanese, or simplified Chinese) commonly uses 棷 as an independent word.

Its significance lies less in everyday use and more in representing the lexical depth of wood-related characters and how even minor terms were graphically encoded in Chinese script.