Ài (stale-food character)

It names food whose flavor has turned.

A Chinese dictionary lists 𮩝 as a simplified form of the headword 餲. The Mandarin reading ài describes food left long enough for its flavor to turn unpleasant. A separate reading, hé, names a fried pastry. Nearby words show which older sense is meant.

What does 𮩝 mean in the Analects?

It marks food whose flavor had turned.

The Erya, an early Chinese word-gloss book, names the spoiled-food condition 餲. The Analects, a collection of sayings and scenes about Confucius and his students, includes 食饐而餲 in a rule against eating food that has gone bad. Classical commentary distinguishes 饐, rice spoiled by damp heat, from 餲, whose taste changes after standing.

Why is 𮩝 in a Japanese character catalog?

Its Unicode source record is from Japan’s Moji Joho Kiban.

Moji Joho Kiban (文字情報基盤) is a Japanese inventory of detailed character forms needed for administrative records, including names. Its record documents this exact graphic form; Chinese dictionaries preserve the food-word meanings.