Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

鹿 (radical 198 鹿+0, 11 strokes, cangjie input 戈X心 (IXP), four-corner 0021₁)

1. Kangxi radical #198, ⿅ ‎(“deer”).

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/鹿
• 塵

Related characters

• 𢊁 (as in 薦)

References

• KangXi: page 1508, character 14
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 47586
• Dae Jaweon: page 2036, character 14
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 7, page 4727, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9E7F

Chinese

鹿

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 鹿
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

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. This simplification occurred during seal characters.

Contrast the very different development of 馬 (“horse”), and the hybrid simplification in 𢊁 (“bison”) (as in 薦), which has the head of 鹿 but the legs of 馬 (灬).

Pronunciation

Definitions

鹿

1. deer
2. A surname​.

Synonyms

• 鹿仔

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

1. deer

Readings

• Goon: ろく (roku)
• Kan’on: ろく (roku)
• Kun: か (ka), しか (shika), かせぎ (kasegi) (non-Jōyō reading), かのしし, (kanoshishi) (non-Jōyō reading), しし (shishi) (non-Jōyō reading)

Compounds

Etymology 1

From Old Japanese.^[1]

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [ka̠]

Noun

鹿 ‎(hiragana か, romaji ka)

1. (archaic) deer

Etymology 2

/seka/ → /sika/

Originally a compound of 夫 ‎(se, “male”) +‎ 鹿 ‎(ka, “deer”), in contrast to 女鹿 ‎(meka, “female deer”, archaic).^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) しか [shìká] (Heiban - [0])^[2]
• (Tokyo) しか​ [shìkáꜜ] (Odaka - [2])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ɕika̠]

Noun

鹿 ‎(hiragana しか, romaji shika)

1. deer

   奈良公園 (ならこうえん)には鹿 (しか)しかいない。

   Nara kōen ni wa shika shika inai.

   There is nothing but deer in Nara Park.

Idioms

Etymology 3

From the resemblance to a 桛木 ‎(kasegi, “cross-shaped spindle; a branching point in a tree”)

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [ka̠se̞ɡ̃i]

Noun

鹿 ‎(hiragana かせぎ, romaji kasegi)

1. (archaic) deer
   • 1212: Hōjōki

     山鳥 (やまどり)のほろと鳴 (な)くを聞 (き)きても、父 (ちち)か母 (はは)かと疑 (うたが)ひ、峰 (みね)のかせぎの近 (ちか)くなれたるにつけても、世 (よ)に遠 (とお)ざかるほどを知 (し)る。

     Yamadori no horo to naku o kikite mo, chichi ka haha ka to utagahi, mine no kasegi no chikaku naretaru ni tsukete mo, yo ni tōzakaru hodo woshiru.

     Hearing the horo call of the mountain pheasant, wondering if it were my father or mother [calling from beyond the grave], and seeing how the deer on the ridge are so tame that they come close by, all of it shows me how far away I am from the world.

Etymology 4

Originally a compound of 鹿 ‎(ka, “deer”) +‎ の ‎(no, possessive particle) +‎ 肉 ‎(しし, “meat, flesh”).^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [kã̠no̞ɕiɕi]

Alternative forms

• 鹿の肉

Noun

鹿 ‎(hiragana かのしし, romaji kanoshishi)

1. (archaic) deer
2. deer meat: venison

Etymology 5

From 肉 ‎(shishi, “meat, flesh”).^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) し​し [shíꜜshì] (Atamadaka - [1])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ɕiɕi]

Alternative forms

• 獣, 猪

Noun

鹿 ‎(hiragana しし, romaji shishi)

1. (archaic) a beast (used for its meat, such as a boar or a deer)
2. short for 猪武者 ‎(inoshishi musha): a reckless warrior
3. short for 鹿狩り ‎(shishi-gari): a deer hunter
4. (slang) a female attendant at a bathhouse or hot spring
5. (slang, archaic) a female prostitute at a bathhouse or hot spring

Usage notes

The beast sense is more commonly spelled 獣.

Etymology 6

From Middle Chinese 鹿 ‎(luwk, “deer”). Compare modern Min Nan reading lo̍k.

Pronunciation

• On'yomi
• (Tokyo) ろく [ròkú] (Heiban - [0])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ɺ̠o̞kɯᵝ]

Noun

鹿 ‎(hiragana ろく, romaji roku)

1. deer
2. venison or wild boar meat

References

1. 1 2 3 4 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9

• Ichiko, Teiji (1212) Hōjōki (Shintei), Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 4-00-301001-9, published 1989
• Nishio, Minoru (1957) Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei: Hōjōki, Tsurezuregusa, Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 4-00-060030-3

Korean

Hanja

鹿 • ‎(rok, nok) (hangeul 록, 녹, revised rok, nok, McCune-Reischauer rok, nok, Yale lok, nok)

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Vietnamese

Han character

鹿 (lộc, lê)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.