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The entire character 嫑 seems to be pronounced or translated to "bao". What does this character 嫑 mean?

Specifically, I'd really like to know the meaning of the middle symbol on its own as well. The top one is bù 不 (no, not, negative) and the bottom is nǚ 女 (female, woman).

The closest thing I could find was xī 西 (west, western). Without the "bu" on top we get 要 yào (to want, etc.).

I'm quite new to Mandarin Chinese, but am quite familiar with the basics so far. (I've complete about half-way through some popular apps.) I am very interested in how the symbols combine into new characters and change meanings.

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    嫑 is combo of 不 and 要 to mean exactly that 不要 - 不 don't 要 want; pronunciation is biao2
    – Mou某 ♦
    Sep 13, 2016 at 14:33
  • Thanks! @user3306356 Any thoughts on the middle symbol? Is it a version of the character for west, xī?
    – jdods
    Sep 13, 2016 at 14:42
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    it absolutely is 西
    – Mou某 ♦
    Sep 13, 2016 at 14:42
  • Thanks! I found this discussion which was enlightening (link below). I guess the character in question is not OK in all dialects. That's not something I was aware of. forum.wordreference.com/threads/嫑-摽-biao4.3031602
    – jdods
    Sep 13, 2016 at 20:48
  • As user3306356 said, it's a combo of 不要. There are some other examples following that logic as in 甭 béng (不用 - need not).
    – Enrico Brasil
    Sep 14, 2016 at 13:58

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The old character shows hands pulling a head from a woman, which I presume means helping her to have a baby rather than pulling her head off! The middle part is the head and the hands. The fact that the hands only have 3 fingers is proof positive that aliens kidnapped Chinese babies a long time ago. Everyone knows only aliens have 3 fingers! This from zdic.

http://www.zdic.net/z/24/zy/8981.htm

old yao character

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