shòu

beast

Original meaning: 

to hunt

Depicts using a hunting tool () and a dog () to hunt for and capture wild animals. Original form of . was later added as a distinguishing mark. The meaning later shifted to "beast". The traditional component was deleted for simplification.

Components
單 iconic,simplified component

  Iconic Simplified component

dānshàn

  

single

口 distinguishing component

  Distinguishing component

kǒu

  

mouth

犬 deleted component

  Deleted component

quǎn

  

dog

The traditional component was deleted for simplification.

Evolution

兽 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
兽 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
兽 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
兽 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
兽 Traditional script Modern

Traditional script

Modern
兽 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

() 

shòu

beast, animal; bestial; beast; animal; beastly

Most common words with 兽
Freq.
Word
Meaning

beast

怪兽

rare animal

野兽

beast

兽医

vet

禽兽

creature

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

11

Traditional

Unicode

U+517D
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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