镂刻
lòu​kè

engrave

镂 lòu, lǘ carve Simplified

Components

钅
钅 Meaning component
jīn metal

metal

娄
娄 Sound component
lóu, lǚ, lǘ surname

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

刻 kè carve

Phonosemantic compound. 刂 represents the meaning and 亥 represents the sound.

Components

亥
亥 Sound component
hài, jiē 12th terrestrial branch
Change in sound
刂
刂 Meaning component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhok[kʰ]ˤək cut, engrave

說文解字

《說文》：“刻，鏤也。从刀，亥聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

鏤 carve Traditional

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartluwH[r]ˤo-scarve
Zhengzhangroːs
ro

說文解字

剛鐵，可以刻鏤。从金婁聲。《夏書》曰：“梁州貢鏤。”一曰鏤，釜也。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)