虢
Guó

name of ancient feudal State in Shenxi and Hunan

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approved by Prismcool · Feb 11, 2024, 04:47 AM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Feb 11, 2024, 04:47 AM

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Changed fields: components, customSources

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

爪
爪 Iconic component
寸
寸 Iconic component

Originally 攴, which depicts a hand holding a weapon. Later reanalyzed as 寸 (hand).

虎
虎 Iconic component

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkwaek[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)