Original meaning: to fight a tiger
Depicts a hand (爫) and a hand holding a weapon (攴) fighting with a tiger (虎). The component 攴 was later reanalyzed as 寸 (hand). Based on the original meaning "to fight a tiger". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kwaek | [k]ʷˤrak | (place name) |
說文解字
《說文》：“虢，虎所攫畫明文也。从虎，寽聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.410
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)