漢字Kanji · in Animals & Wildlife
犠: sacrifice
JLPT N117 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met
牛 carries the meaning · 義 gives the sound
17 strokes
Small seal · Qin Today
Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
One reading, and the words that use it
ギgi · on'yomi · in compounds
- 犠牲ぎせいsacrifice
- 犠飛ぎひsacrifice fly
- 犠打ぎだsacrifice (bunt or fly)
- 犠牲者ぎせいしゃvictim (esp. someone killed); casualty
Also read キ, いけにえ, with no example words in our sources. Words: JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)牛 ox (meaning) + 羲 (sound)
Source: Wiktionary, 犧 (rev. 93450619), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Cow (牛) + moral/righteous. A "cow" offered in a "righteous" ritual—the literal image of a "sacrifice" made for a greater purpose.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by side犠 sacrifice · 牛
vs儀 ceremony · 亻In ChineseSimplified 牺 · traditional 犧 · xī
Three different forms: Japanese 犠, simplified 牺, traditional 犧.
- Simplified
- 牺 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 犧 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin xī most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.
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