What 痸 means
Historical dictionaries give 痸 several illness-related glosses. Three historical Chinese dictionaries—the 《玉篇》, 《廣韻》 and 字彙補—record different strands: the 《玉篇》 equates it with 瘛, the 《廣韻》 glosses it as leprosy, and 字彙補 gives 痴病. These are different historical glosses, not proof that the conditions were medically identical.
Why does 痸 appear in illness terms?
Its 疒 component marks illness; 制 contributes sound. 疒 is the illness radical found in Chinese disease-related characters. In 痸, 制 belongs to a sound-related series with 掣, so it cues pronunciation rather than adding another medical meaning.
Treat 痸 as a citation, not a reaction
Treat 痸 alone as a reference needing context. If someone sends 痸 by itself, ask for the surrounding sentence or source. In a classical quotation or old dictionary, it points to historical medical vocabulary.
Historical medical vocabulary; it reads like a dictionary citation, not ordinary conversation.
Ask for its source before treating 痸 as a reaction.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
1Worth knowing
- The 《山海經》, an old Chinese collection of geography and marvels, records eating a named bird as a cure for 痸; this is a historical belief, not medical advice.
Questions people ask
1Why does 痸 appear as a box?
As of 2026-09-11, some font environments lacked 痸 and displayed a box or fallback glyph; that changes its appearance, not which character it is.
How to type 痸
痸\75F8Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.