Chinese thulium character

It names thulium, a rare-earth metal. In Chinese technical writing, 銩 is the element's name. The metal radical on the left marks the material class; the right side echoes 丟, the Mandarin word for “to lose,” as a sound cue. That part contributes sound, not the meaning “lose.”

The name belongs to a modern scientific naming project, not an ancient Chinese word. In 1871, the chemistry primer 化學鑑原 promoted one-character names for elements. Around 1898, 铥 appeared among proposed standardized forms. After competing approaches based on transliteration or material properties, Chinese chemical nomenclature was formalized in 1933. The 1993 Unicode date marks encoding, not the start of the name's history.

What does 銩 mean when someone sends it?

They mean thulium, usually by naming a material, compound, or device. On its own, 銩 reads as a technical element label. If there is no chemistry context, ask what the sender is referring to; the surrounding words supply the rest.