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Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC 
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC 
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD Regular Modern
Added etymology
Changed fields: hint, originalMeaning, isVerified, components, customSources, strokeDataSimp, fragmentsSimp, historicalImages
Original meaning: to fight a tiger
Depicts a hand (爪) 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
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)