☿

A simple caduceus (☤) of the Greek god Hermes (and his Roman equivalent Mercury), as seen with a much longer staff in stylized representations of that god e.g. on pottery. The cross was added in the 16th century to Christianize the symbol of a pagan god.[1]

☿

Use of ☿ for Wednesday, near the bottom of the calendar dial of this 16th-century clock-calendar. Note that in form it resembles ⟨⟩ Taurus.

1. (astronomy, astrology) Mercury.
2. (alchemy, archaic) mercury, quicksilver.
3. (rare) Wednesday.

   Refers to the Latin phrase dies Mercurii, which literally means "Mercury's day".

4. (botany, of a flower, obsolete) perfect, hermaphrodite.

   (Replaced by ⟨⚥⟩.)

   • 1961 August 17, New Scientist, volume 11, number 248 (in English), Reed Business Information, →ISSN, page 413:

     In his Mantissa Plantarum (1767) and Mantissa Plantarum altera (1771), [Linnaeus] regularly used ♂, ♀ and ☿ for male, female and hermaphrodite flowers respectively.

5. (gender) intersex.
   • 2012, Olga B. A. van den Akker, Reproductive Health Psychology (in English), John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 40:

     The genders are typically represented by symbols derived from the planets. The female (Venus) and male (Mars) symbols (shown below) are commonly known and used.
     Venus ♀ Mars ♂ Mercury ☿
     As not everyone believes that they fit into either the male or female gender role regardless of their biological genetic sex, they tend to refer to themselves as the third category, intersex, intergender or transgender (see Mercury symbol above).

6. (entomology) worker.
   • 1903, C. T. Bingham, Hymenoptera.—Vol. II. Ants and Cuckoo-wasps (The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma) (in English), London: Taylor and Francis, page v:

     Ants like the honey-bees and one section of the wasps, are social insects with, in any well-established nest or community, three distinct forms—the perfect and fertile female (♀) the male (♂), and the so-called neuter or worker (☿), which is merely an undeveloped female.

7. (astrology) mutable zodiacal modality.

   Synonym: 🜳

• (alchemy): 🜐

• 
  Late Classical and Medieval forms
• 
  Classical variant of the symbol
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  Manuscript variant of the symbol
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  A decorative variant in the Netherlands
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  As a symbol for quicksilver
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  An abstract variant
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  Symbol on a pale-silver background
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  Transit of Mercury