甮 (regional negative)

It marks a regional negative; the dialect sets what is denied. In Ningbo-area Wu speech, 甮 is a contraction of 勿用: 勿 means “don’t” and 用 means “use,” giving a force like “don’t use it” or “no need to use it.”

The dictionary trail is layered: a note on related 甭 points to Longkan Shoujian, an old Chinese character dictionary; references to 甮 pass through Zhonghua Zi Hai, a broad character reference, and Jianming Wu Fangyan Cidian, a concise Wu-dialect dictionary. This records regional writing, not a single modern invention.

Someone sent me 甮—what does it mean?

Read it through the sender’s dialect and nearby words. A 2023 Chaoshan literary example describes a local negative built from 勿 (“don’t”) and 愛 (“want/love”). The exact local graph was unavailable in the character sets at hand, so the writer used 甮 as a stand-in; in 甮丸, the result is “don’t want meatballs.” This is a local workaround, not a general extension of 甮.

If you do not know the sender’s dialect, do not assume which thing is being denied. The intended sense may be “don’t use” or “don’t want”; a familiar phrase around it can make that clear.