Rib compatibility ideograph

Use F953 in a Unicode hex-input tool. This compatibility form preserves a source-encoding distinction for 肋, the character for a rib. In source code, \uF953 works only in programming languages that support Unicode escapes.

Why does 肋 turn into 肋?

It maps to the same character, 肋. F953 was added to support round-trip conversion with Korea’s KS C 5601, later called KS X 1001. That standard contained duplicate Han entries tied to alternative pronunciations; the compatibility character keeps that source distinction available.

Unicode normalization can replace 肋 with 肋, so the source distinction may be lost. A standardized variation sequence for 肋 can request this compatibility glyph when a system supports it.

What does the character behind 肋 mean?

The underlying character means a rib. In the Han-era Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese character dictionary, 肋 is defined as rib bone; its traditional analysis combines 肉, the meaning component for flesh, with 力, a sound component.

In Chinese, 肋 can also mean meat beside an animal’s ribs. Japanese uses it for ribs, including in 肋骨 (あばら骨, “rib bones”). Korean Hanja (Chinese characters used in Korean) records the reading 륵 in Hunmong Jahoe (1527); in compounds at the start of a Korean word, it appears as 늑, as in 늑골, “ribs.”

By the third century CE, the Chinese phrase 雞肋 (“chicken ribs”) was used for something too meager to be useful yet too hard to give up.