搔

See also: 掻

搔 U+6414, 搔 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-6414 ← 搓 [U+6413] CJK Unified Ideographs 搕 → [U+6415]

Translingual

Japanese	掻
Simplified	搔
Traditional	搔

Han character

搔 (Kangxi radical 64, 手+10, 13 strokes, cangjie input 手水戈戈 (QEII), four-corner 5703₆, composition ⿰扌蚤)

Descendants

• 掻

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 446, character 25
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 12477
• Dae Jaweon: page 797, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 1939, character 6
• Unihan data for U+6414

Chinese

trad.		搔
simp. #		搔

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 搔
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Small seal script

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

	Old Chinese
蚤	*ʔsuːʔ
慅	*sʰuːʔ, *suː
騷	*suː
搔	*suː
鰠	*suː
溞	*suː
颾	*suː
瘙	*suːs
瑵	*ʔsruːʔ
糔	*suʔ
鼜	*sʰɯːwɢ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *suː) : semantic 手 (“hand”) + phonetic 蚤 (OC *ʔsuːʔ, “flea, louse”).

Etymology

Schuessler (2007) considers 掃 (OC *suːʔ, *suːs, “to brush”) to be cognate and suggests a Sino-Tibetan etymology, relating it to Chepang साव्‌सा (saw-, “to itch”), सोस्‌सा (sos‑, “to itch”), Bodo (India) [script needed] (su-, “to itch”).

Baxter and Sagart (2014) relates it to 爪 (OC *ʔsruːʔ, “claw”).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): sāo (sao¹)

  (Zhuyin): ㄙㄠ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): sou¹
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): so / so͘ / sau

  (Teochew, Peng'im): sao¹

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: sāo
    • Zhuyin: ㄙㄠ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: sao
    • Wade–Giles: sao¹
    • Yale: sāu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: sau
    • Palladius: сао (sao)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sɑʊ̯⁵⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: sou¹
    • Yale: sōu
    • Cantonese Pinyin: sou¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: sou¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sou̯⁵⁵/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, General Taiwanese)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: so
    • Tâi-lô: so
    • Phofsit Daibuun: soy
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /sɤ⁴⁴/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /so³³/
    • IPA (Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Taipei): /so⁴⁴/
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: so͘
    • Tâi-lô: soo
    • Phofsit Daibuun: sof
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /sɔ³³/
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sau
    • Tâi-lô: sau
    • Phofsit Daibuun: saw
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /sau³³/
    • IPA (Xiamen, Zhangzhou): /sau⁴⁴/

Note:

• so/so͘ - literary;
• sau - vernacular.

• (Teochew)
  • Peng'im: sao¹
  • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: sau
  • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sau³³/

---

• Middle Chinese: saw

Rime
Character	搔
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	心 (16)
Final (韻)	豪 (89)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	蘇遭切
Baxter	saw
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/sɑu/
Pan Wuyun	/sɑu/
Shao Rongfen	/sɑu/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/saw/
Li Rong	/sɑu/
Wang Li	/sɑu/
Bernhard Karlgren	/sɑu/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	sāo
Expected Cantonese Reflex	sou1

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*s-[ts]ˤu/

  (Zhengzhang): /*suː/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	搔
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	sāo
Middle Chinese	‹ saw ›
Old Chinese	/*s-[ts]ˁu/
English	scratch (v.)
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	搔
Reading #	1/1
No.	16555
Phonetic component	蚤
Rime group	幽
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	騷
Old Chinese	/*suː/

Definitions

搔

1. to scratch

   搔癢／搔痒  ―  sāoyǎng  ―  to scratch an itch

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 搔 (“to scratch (an itch)”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Classical Chinese		搔
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		搔, 撓
Northeastern Mandarin	Taiwan	搔, 抓
Cantonese	Guangzhou	𢯎, 搲
	Hong Kong	𢯎, 搲
	Taishan	搲
	Yangjiang	𢯎
Hakka	Meixian	搲
	Miaoli (N. Sixian)	爪
	Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian)	爪
	Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu)	爪
	Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu)	爪
	Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping)	爪
	Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an)	爪
Eastern Min	Fuzhou	扒
Southern Min	Xiamen	扒
	Quanzhou	扒
	Zhangzhou	扒
	Tainan	扒
	Singapore (Hokkien)	扒
	Manila (Hokkien)	扒
	Shantou (Chaoyang)	扒
	Puning	嬈, 扒
Wu	Shanghai	抓
	Suzhou	抓
	Wenzhou	抓

Japanese

Shinjitai (extended)	掻
Kyūjitai	搔

Kanji

搔

(Hyōgai kanji, kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai form 掻)

1. to scratch
2. to make noise

Readings

• Go-on: そう (sō)^{←さう (sau, historical)}
• Kan-on: そう (sō)^{←さう (sau, historical)}
• Kun: かい (kai, 搔い)、かき (kaki, 搔き)、かく (kaku, 搔く)、さわぐ (sawagu, 搔ぐ)

Definitions

For pronunciation and definitions of 搔 – see the following entry.

【掻】H [kanji] hyōgai kanji [kanji] Extended shinjitai form of 搔: to scratch; to make noise Kanji reading: そう, かい, かき, かく, さわぐ

(This term, 搔, is the kyūjitai of the above term.)

Korean

Hanja

搔 • (so) (hangeul 소, revised so, McCune–Reischauer so, Yale so)

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

Vietnamese

Han character

搔: Hán Nôm readings: trao, tao, trau

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