shòu
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".
Components
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernHistorical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*s.tʰu(ʔ)-s | syuwH | shòu | (wild) animal |
Statistics
Not found in HSK word list
Appears in 15.3612% of movies
1462nd most common character in movies
1602nd most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 19 |
Simplified | |
Unicode | U+7378 |
Shuowen | “獸,守備者。从嘼,从犬。” |
Sources
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
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