漢字Kanji · in Animals & Wildlife
鹿: deer
广 and 比 are drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Three readings, and the words that use each
ロクroku · on'yomi · in compounds
- 鹿苑寺ろくおんじformal name of Kinkakuji Temple
- 鹿鳴館ろくめいかんname of a building in Meiji period
しかshika · kun'yomi · on its own
- 鹿しかdeer
かka · kun'yomi
- 馬鹿ばか
- 馬鹿らしいばからしいabsurd; foolish; stupid
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 馬鹿なばかなstupid, silly
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0 · JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
A deer. Current form is highly abstracted – legs have transformed to 比 – note grouping of front and rear legs, which are bent – head has transformed to middle component (similar to 凸/曲), while antlers on top and extended lip/mouth on left transformed into 广.
Source: Wiktionary, 鹿 (rev. 92720584), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji for a deer, used in geography (like Kagoshima or Nara) and to describe the animal itself.”
Connections
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · lù
Same form: 鹿 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 鹿 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 鹿 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin lù most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.