What 糵 means
It names sprouted grain used for brewing. In the Shangshu, an ancient Chinese classic, 糵 appears beside 麴 in a passage about 酒醴, a sweet cereal drink. Archaeological evidence places sprouted-grain fermentation in Early Neolithic China, so the practice predates that text.
The Han-era Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese dictionary, glosses it as sprouted grain. Later dictionaries also use it for the fermentation starter; classical writing also uses it figuratively for stirring up or causing trouble.
Why did someone send me 糵?
Usually, it points to a literary or brewing reference. A lone character does not tell you which sense is intended; ask for the surrounding phrase.
Literary and brewing-specific; in a message, it points to an old-text or technical reference.
Its brewing sense names an ingredient, not a drinking reaction.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
1Combination ideas
1Questions people ask
1Why does 糵 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type 糵
糵\7CF5Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.