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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

哭

kū
to weep; to cry; to wail
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 口
  • 10 strokes

Etymology graph

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

In oracle bone inscriptions, ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 吅 (“loudly”) + person with long hair (Similar to 老 without the cane) – "cry; weep". The pictogram of the person with long hair corrupted into 犬. Evidence suggests 吅 could be an abbreviation of the sound component 咢 (OC *ŋaːɡ), making the character phono-semantic (形聲 /形声).

Shuowen Jiezi interprets it as a phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ŋ̊ʰoːɡ): semantic 吅 (“to speak loudly”) + abbreviated phonetic 獄 (OC *ŋoɡ).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kuːk (“to weep; to wail”); cognate with Mizo kûk (“to shriek”) (STEDT).

This seems to be an area word; compare Proto-Mon-Khmer *kuk ~ kuuk ~ kuək ~ kək (“to call”), Proto-Austronesian *-kuk (“sound of a sob”) (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*kuːk “to weep; to wail”
  • meaningChinese吅 “to speak loudly”
  • soundChinese獄 “prison”
    • ideaChinese㹜 “two dogs are barking to each other”
    • ideaChinese言 “to say; to speak; to talk”

Related: Mizo kûk, Proto-Mon-Khmer *kuk, Proto-Austronesian *-kuk

Meanings

character
  1. to weep; to cry; to wail

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

哭：哀聲也。从吅，獄省聲。凡哭之屬皆从哭。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 因傷心或激動而流淚，甚至發出悲聲。 例：哭泣、嚎啕大哭、痛哭失聲　◎

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

How 哭 was written 字形演變

  1. 哭 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 哭 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 哭 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 哭 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: 哭