丂

丂 U+4E02, 丂 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-4E02 ← 丁 [U+4E01] CJK Unified Ideographs 七 → [U+4E03]

Translingual

Han character

丂 (Kangxi radical 1, 一+1, 2 strokes, cangjie input 一女尸 (MVS), four-corner 1020₇, composition ⿱一㇉)

Derived characters

• 𫢆, 𭂆, 𫩐, 巧, 𫹫, 𢩨, 汅, 𨸑, 朽, 㱙, 𭭿, 𦘰, 䀎, 𥝑, 𦔲, 𧢵, 𬵁, 𪋽, 𪐚, 𫨲, 𫻦, 攷, 𰀇
• 亐, 𠀅, 亏, 兮, 𠔃, 号, 䒓, 𠂞, 𬔖, 𠂠, 甹, 𥀿, 𠡐, 𧖨, 𠫫, 㕺, 粤, 粵, 𦻏, 㽲, 亟, 函
• 𠄃, 𠄄, 𠄊, 𠄋, 𠄚

Descendants

• ㄎ
• ㆶ

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 75, character 5
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 4, character 1
• Unihan data for U+4E02

Chinese

simp. and trad.		丂

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 丂
Shang	Western Zhou	Spring and Autumn	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)	Kangxi Dictionary (compiled in Qing)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts	Ming typeface
Oracle bone script j11554 j11555 Bronze inscriptions b07078 b07079 b07080 b07081 b07082 b07083 b07084 b07085 b07086 Small seal script s03499
References: Mostly from Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site (authorisation), which in turn draws data from various collections of ancient forms of Chinese characters, including: Shuowen Jiezi (small seal), Jinwen Bian (bronze inscriptions), Liushutong (Liushutong characters) and Yinxu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).

Characters in the same phonetic series (丂) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
丂	*kʰluːʔ
攷	*kʰluːʔ
考	*kʰluːʔ
烤	*kʰluːʔ
拷	*kʰluːʔ
栲	*kʰluːʔ
洘	*kʰluːʔ
銬	*kʰluːs
巧	*kʰruːʔ, *kʰruːs
朽	*qʰluʔ

Conflation of several characters:

1. Pictogram (象形) - axe handle; original character of 柯 (OC *kaːl) (漢語多功能字庫). Compare 斤 (jīn) which is a pictogram for the full axe.
2. Pictogram (象形) - cane; original character of 杖 (OC *daŋʔ) (李春桃.甲骨文中的“丂”字新釋.甲骨文與殷商史(新十輯),2020:253-264.)
3. Simplified from 考 (OC *kʰluːʔ), which is ideogrammic compound with cane (see above) as a component.
4. Variant of 于 (OC *ɢʷa) (exhaled air or an ancient wind instrument).

Etymology 1

The definition of ‘appearance of air that is to be released’ is provided by Shuowen (treated as 𠃑 + 一) as an origin of the glyph, but considered suspect by modern linguists.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): kǎo (kao³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄎㄠˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): haau²
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): kháu

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: kǎo
    • Zhuyin: ㄎㄠˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: kǎo
    • Wade–Giles: kʻao³
    • Yale: kǎu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: kao
    • Palladius: као (kao)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /kʰɑʊ̯²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: haau²
    • Yale: háau
    • Cantonese Pinyin: haau²
    • Guangdong Romanization: hao²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /haːu̯³⁵/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Neipu)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: kháu
    • Hakka Romanization System: kau^ˋ
    • Hagfa Pinyim: kau³
    • Sinological IPA: /kʰau̯³¹/

---

• Middle Chinese: khawX

Rime
Character	丂
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	溪 (29)
Final (韻)	豪 (89)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	苦浩切
Baxter	khawX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/kʰɑuX/
Pan Wuyun	/kʰɑuX/
Shao Rongfen	/kʰɑuX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/kʰawX/
Li Rong	/kʰɑuX/
Wang Li	/kʰɑuX/
Bernhard Karlgren	/kʰɑuX/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	kǎo
Expected Cantonese Reflex	hou2

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*C.qʰˤuʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*kʰluːʔ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	丂
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	kǎo
Middle Chinese	‹ khawX ›
Old Chinese	/*C.qʰˁuʔ/ (Shuōwén; no pre-Qín exx.)
English	to sob
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	丂
Reading #	1/1
No.	7402
Phonetic component	丂
Rime group	幽
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	考
Old Chinese	/*kʰluːʔ/
Notes	古文考

Definitions

丂

1. ^‡ the appearance of air which is to be released

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 丂 – see 于 (“to go to; at; etc.”). (This character is an ancient variant form of 于).

Etymology 3

For pronunciation and definitions of 丂 – see 考 (“to examine; to check; to study; to investigate; etc.”). (This character is recorded in one or more historical dictionaries as a variant form of 考).

References

• (Cantonese) Jyutping Database (iso10646hk.net) - Cantonese Pronunciation List (Part 1), p. 60
• (Hakka) Academia Sinica - Hakka-English Dictionary
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), C00001
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A03252-008

Japanese

Kanji

丂

(Hyōgai kanji)

1. obstruction of breath

Readings

• Go-on: こう (kō)^{←かう (kau, historical)}
• Kan-on: こう (kō)^{←かう (kau, historical)}
• Kun: さまたげられる (samatagerareru, 丂げられる)

Korean

Hanja

丂 (eumhun 공교할 교 (gonggyohal gyo))

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

Readings

• âm: khảo, xảo
• nghĩa: khảo, xảo quyệt

• 巧譎 (xảo quyệt, cunning, artful)