CJK Unified Ideograph-643F

It writes a two-handed hold, hug, or clutch. The core sense is physical: bringing both hands around an object or person. A 1632 Ming vernacular novel uses 搿在腋下 for holding a rope under the arm. That is the earliest dated witness I could verify in this research, not proof that the character was invented in 1632.

The graph is built as 手–合–手 in the Taiwan CNS record. That makes the safest origin story an inference: the form was chosen to write a joining or enclosing hand action. Taiwan’s Ministry of Education says 搿 is not recorded in 《说文》, so there is no evidence here for a single ancient inventor or an early standard-script pedigree.

Why can 搿个 mean “this”?

Its neighbors decide which reading you get. The 2017 national dialect-character list records 搿 in Shanghai and Suzhou for holding something under the arm, hugging, and “this.” A 2023 account of Shanghai writing says 搿 is one of several written forms — 个, 箇, 個, 搿 and others — for the local 个 morpheme; 搿个 is used for the near demonstrative “this.”

The historical connection is orthographic, not visual: 搿, 个, 箇, and 個 can write related Shanghai grammatical uses, while 抱, 搂抱, and 拥抱 are Standard Chinese neighbors for the physical action. Do not treat 搿 as a universal replacement for either 这个 or 抱; it carries a local writing convention with it.

Is 搿 safe outside Wu writing?

Use it only when the dialect voice is intentional. Shanghai is a living Northern Wu variety, and its written vocabulary is not automatically transparent to Standard Mandarin readers. In a general Mandarin message, a recipient may recognize a rare character without knowing whether you mean “hug,” “hold,” or “this.”

For a boss, a mixed-language group, or anyone outside that dialect community, write 抱 or 拥抱 for the physical action, or 这个 for the demonstrative. In a local Wu conversation, 搿 can be a precise identity marker rather than a mistake.