Chinese character 㜎

It is a historical Chinese character with competing dictionary readings.

A character-history record places 㜎 on a bronze inscription from the late Western Zhou dynasty. The Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese dictionary, glosses it as 女隸 (“female slave”): 女 points to a woman and 奚 supplies the sound. The Zhou Li, a text on ritual and government, also uses 奚 for the same slave term.

Historical dictionaries assign the Mandarin readings xī to “female slave” and xì to “timid” or “jealous woman.” In pinyin, x begins with a sound close to “sh,” made with the tongue farther forward; xī stays high and level, while xì falls. Treat a lone occurrence as a dictionary or historical use until its source is clear.