Chinese character 鬊

鬊 means fallen or disordered hair. The Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese character dictionary, defines it as fallen hair; later Chinese dictionaries also extend it to hair in general.

The Yili, an early manual of ritual, lists 鬊 with nail clippings, a cloth, and a ritual ladle for burial in a pit after washing the deceased. The Book of Han uses 亂鬊 for a sky image: black clouds look like hair blown into a tangle by gusting wind.

Is 鬊鳥兒 an insult?

In Tianjin speech, it can be a put-down. A 2012 essay on Tianjin Chinese records 鬊 as one proposed spelling for a spoken insult about ugly looks or unusual clothes, with extensions to embarrassment or bad luck. The author says the spoken term has no settled spelling.

Treat this reading as an insult only when the surrounding language is clearly Tianjin speech.