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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

刮

guā
to shave; to pare off; to scrape
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 刀
  • 8 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *kroːd): phonetic 𠯑 (OC *ɡroːd) + semantic 刀 (“knife”).

Probably from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-krjat (“to scratch, scrape”), whence Burmese ခြစ် (hkrac, “to scrape, shred”) (STEDT).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • simplified fromChinese颳 “to blow”
  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*m-krjat “to scratch, scrape”
  • soundChinese𠯑 “to block the mouth”
  • meaningChinese刀 “knife; blade (Classifier: 把 m c g h j mb md w x; 張／张 c h; 叢／丛 mn; 支 mn mn-t)”

Related: Burmese ခြစ်

Meanings

character
  1. to shave; to pare off; to scrape
  2. to wipe; to sweep
  3. to plunder; to extort
  4. to reprimand; to scold
  5. to find someone

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

刮：掊把也。从刀𠯑聲。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 用刀削去物體表面的東西。 例：刮鬍子、刮魚鱗　◎
  2. 擦拭。 例：刮目相看
  3. 比喻剝削、詐取。 例：搜刮財物
  4. 比喻訓斥、責罵。 例：他延誤了公事，被上司刮了一頓。
  5. 吹。同「颳」。 例：這棵樹被颱風刮倒了。

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 刮 was written 字形演變

  1. 刮 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 刮 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 刮