鹿

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Pictogram (象形) – a deer. Current form is highly abstracted – legs have transformed to 比 – note grouping of front and rear legs, which are bent – head has transformed to middle component (similar to 凸/曲), while antlers on top and extended lip/mouth on left transformed into 广. This simplification occurred during seal characters.

Contrast the very different development of 馬 (“horse”), and the hybrid simplification in 𢊁 (“bison”) (as in 薦), which has the head of 鹿 but the legs of 馬 (灬).

Han character

鹿 (radical 198 鹿+0, 11 strokes, cangjie input 戈X心 (IXP), four-corner 0021₁)

1. deer
2. used as a surname
3. KangXi radical 198

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/鹿
• 塵

Related characters

• 𢊁 (as in 薦)

References

• KangXi: page 1508, character 14
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 47586
• Dae Jaweon: page 2036, character 14
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 7, page 4727, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9E7F

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Cantonese

Hanzi

鹿 (Yale luk6)

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Japanese

Kanji

鹿 (common “Jōyō” kanji)

1. deer

Readings

• On: ろく (roku)
• Kun: しか (shika), か (ka), かせぎ (kasegi), かのしし, (kanoshishi), しし (shishi)

Etymology 1

Noun

鹿 (hiragana か, romaji ka)

1. deer (archaic)

Etymology 2

From 夫 (se, “male”) + 鹿 (ka, “deer”), in contrast to 女鹿 (meka, “female deer (archaic)”).

Noun

鹿 (hiragana しか, romaji shika)

1. deer

   奈良公園には鹿しかいない。

   nara kōen ni wa shika shika inai.

Etymology 3

From the resemblance to a 桛木 (kasegi, “cross-shaped spindle, or a branching point in a tree”)

Noun

鹿 (hiragana かせぎ, romaji kasegi)

1. deer (archaic)
   • 1212: Hōjōki

     山鳥のほろと鳴くを聞きても、父か母かと疑ひ、峰のかせぎの近くなれたるにつけても、世に遠ざかるほどを知る。

     yamadori no horo to naku wo kikite mo, chichi ka haha ka to utagahi, mine no kasegi no chikaku naretaru ni tsukete mo, yo ni tōzakaru hodo wo shiru.

Etymology 4

From 鹿 (ka, “deer”) + の (ka, “'s”) + 肉 (shishi, “flesh”).

Noun

鹿 (hiragana かのしし, romaji kanoshishi)

1. deer meat
2. deer (archaic)

Etymology 5

From 肉 (shishi, “flesh”).

Noun

鹿 (hiragana しし, romaji shishi)

1. beast (used for its meat such as a boar or a deer) (archaic)

References

• 1989 [1212], Ichiko, Teiji, Hōjōki (Shintei), Iwanami Shoten, 4-00-301001-9:
• 1957, Nishio, Minoru, Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei: Hōjōki, Tsurezuregusa, Iwanami Shoten, 4-00-060030-3:

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Korean

Hanja

鹿 (hangeul 록>녹, revised rok>nok, McCune-Reischauer rok>nok, Yale lok>nok)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

鹿 (pinyin lù (lu4), Wade-Giles lu⁴)

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Middle Chinese

Han character

鹿 (*luk)

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Vietnamese

Han character

鹿 (lộc)