彑

彑 is a top-position variant of the snout/pig-head radical 彐. Visual difference: in 彑 the central horizontal stops short of the right edge, leaving a small gap; in 彐 it closes flush. Both belong to the same indexing radical and share a meaning rooted in animal-head imagery. Never written alone.

Exact origin uncertain in detail - 彑 is treated as a calligraphic stylization of 彐, used historically when the radical sat above another component. Both glyphs descend from an old pictograph of a snouted animal head, but the small visual differences between 彑 and 彐 are largely typographic rather than semantic.

Rarely encountered outside specialist contexts. Found atop characters like 彖 (judgement/boar), 彗 (broom - bristles like boar hair), and historical forms of 录 (record) and 寻 (seek).