嚿

嚿 (Kangxi radical 30, 口+18 in traditional Chinese, 口+17 in simplified Chinese, 21 strokes in traditional Chinese, 20 strokes in simplified Chinese, cangjie input 口廿人難 (RTOX), composition ⿰口舊)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 214, character 28
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 705, character 15
• Unihan data for U+56BF

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声): semantic 口 (“mouth; vernacular”) + phonetic 舊.

Bai (1980) proposes that this word comes from 䊆 (MC gjuwX, “cooked dry rice flour”).

嚿

1. (Cantonese) Classifier for pieces or chunks. ⇒ all nouns using this classifier

   一嚿泥 [Cantonese]  ―  jat¹ gau⁶ nai⁴ [Jyutping]  ―  a clod of earth

   呢嚿肉 [Cantonese]  ―  nei¹ gau⁶ juk⁶ [Jyutping]  ―  this piece of meat

2. (Cantonese, colloquial) Classifier for money: hundred dollars/yuan

   三嚿水 [Cantonese]  ―  saam¹ gau⁶ seoi² [Jyutping]  ―  three hundred bucks

   呢度食餐晏都要幾嚿㗎。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   呢度食餐晏都要几嚿㗎。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   nei¹ dou⁶ sik⁶ caan¹ aan³ dou¹ jiu³ gei² gau⁶ gaa³. [Jyutping]

   Lunch costs a few hundred here.

• 塊／块 (kuài)

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “正字通 says it's the same as 嚄”)

嚿

1. (historical dictionaries only) to boast