尤

The glyph operates on two distinct semantic tracks:

1. Degree (Intensifier): "Especially," "particularly," or "more so." It singles out a quality or subject as standing out from a group.

2. Fault / Blame: An error, a flaw, or the act of blaming.

• Adverbial: When used as an intensifier, it typically precedes the adjective or verb it modifies (e.g., 尤 + [adjective] → "particularly [adjective]").
• Substantive/Predicative: In the sense of "fault," it can function as a noun (the object of a verb) or as a predicate (to be at fault).

Contrast with 咎: While both relate to blame, 尤 tends toward the specific point of criticism or an inherent flaw, whereas 咎 tends toward the resulting disaster, misfortune, or the formal act of casting blame.

Tang-period reading: *hiou. The "fault/blame" sense represents an older semantic layer of the glyph.

Be alert for "contextual slippage" in transitional texts where "exceptionally [bad]" may blur into "a fault." If a translation of "especially" renders a passage logically nonsensical or oddly emphatic, pivot to the "fault/blame" reading.