Tangut Character 17CB5

One dictionary gives “gourd scoop”; a recipe study supports a cooking sense.

The Tangut script was created in the 11th century for the Western Xia state in what is now northwestern China, to write the Tangut language. It appeared in government documents, schools, Buddhist texts, and Tangut translations of Chinese works. Writing continued after the state fell; the latest known inscription dates to 1502.

A dictionary linked with Li Fanwen gives the Chinese gloss 瓢, meaning a scoop made from a gourd. A 2018 study of a Tangut recipe passage argues that a cooking meaning—“boil,” “cook,” or “simmer”—fits the surrounding text, citing support from other Tangut lexical works. Let the sentence around the character guide the translation.

What does 𗲵 mean when someone sends it?

Context decides which reading the sender intends.

A Tangut specialist may recognize it in a text; other readers need the sender to identify the passage. Tangut writing was influenced by Chinese forms, but visual resemblance does not give this character a Chinese reading.