兽
shòu HSK7

beast

Original meaning: to hunt

Depicts using a hunting tool (單) and a dog (犬) to hunt for and capture wild animals. Original form of 狩. 口 was later added as a distinguishing mark. The meaning later shifted to "beast". The traditional component 犬 was deleted for simplification.

Components

單
單 IconicSimplified component
dān single
口
口 Distinguishing component
kǒu, kou mouth
獸
犬 Deleted component
quǎn dog

The traditional component 犬 was deleted for simplification.

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.1270劉志基《中國漢字文物大系》Vol. 14, p.393何琳儀《戰國古文字典：戰國文字聲系》p.218
Readings & variants
Unicode

獸 shòu beast Traditional

Original meaning: to hunt

Depicts using a hunting tool (單) and a dog (犬) to hunt for and capture wild animals. Original form of 狩. 口 was later added as a distinguishing mark. The meaning later shifted to "beast".

Components

單
單 Iconic component
dān single

Depicts a hunting tool.

口
口 Distinguishing component
kǒu, kou mouth
犬
犬 Iconic component
quǎn dog

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsyuwHs.tʰu(ʔ)-s (wild) animal

說文解字

《說文》：“獸，守備者。从嘼，从犬。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.1270劉志基《中國漢字文物大系》Vol. 14, p.393何琳儀《戰國古文字典：戰國文字聲系》p.218
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)