犬

Alternative forms

• 犭 (when used as a left Chinese radical)

Although the alternative form clearly shows only three strokes, it is still counted as four strokes when using a Chinese dictionary. Compare 氵 from 水 (“water”), 扌 from 手 (“hand”), and 忄 from 心 (“heart”), all of which are a 3-stroke form from a 4-stroke character.

Han character

犬 (radical 94, 犬+0, 4 strokes, cangjie input 戈大 (IK), four-corner 4303₀, composition ⿻大丶)

1. Kangxi radical #94, ⽝.

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 犬
Shang		Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu Slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Pictogram (象形) .

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *d-kʷəj-n (“dog”).

This common Sino-Tibetan word has been replaced by 狗 (OC *koːʔ) in most dialects except Min Dong, such as Fuzhou kēng. In other dialects, this word is mainly found in compounds and not used alone.

Pronunciation

Definitions

犬

1. (literary, Min Dong, dialectal Wu) dog

Compounds

Descendants

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. a dog
2. the dog radical (いぬ)

Etymology

犬 (inu): various kinds of dog.

From Old Japanese. Derivation uncertain. Various theories exist, including derivation from ancient verb 往ぬ (inu, “to leave, to be gone”), from the way a dog will guard the house while the master is away; from a compound of 家 (ie, “house, home”) + 寝 (nu, “to sleep”, ancient monosyllabic form of modern 寝る neru); from ancient Japanese 狗 (enu, “puppy, dog”), itself of uncertain derivation; or as a borrowing from some other unknown language.

Pronunciation

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) いぬ​ [ìnúꜜ] (Odaka – [2])^[1][2]
  • IPA^(key): [inɯ̟ᵝ]

Alternative forms

• 狗

Noun

犬 (counter 匹, hiragana いぬ, katakana イヌ, rōmaji inu)

1. dog; canine

   犬 (いぬ)に毎日餌 (まいにちえさ)を上 (あ)げて下 (くだ)さい。

   Inu ni mainichi esa o agete kudasai.

   Please feed the dog every day.

2. one who is loyal (like a dog)
3. a spy

References

Hanja

犬 (eumhun 개 견 (gae gyeon))

1. dog

Etymology

Cognate with Old Japanese 犬 (inu).

Kanji

犬 (hiragana いん, romaji in)

Noun

犬 (hiragana いん, romaji in)

1. dog

Etymology

Cognate with Old Japanese 犬 (inu).

Kanji

犬 (hiragana いん, romaji in)

Noun

犬 (hiragana いん, romaji in)

1. dog

Kanji

犬 (hiragana いん, romaji in)

Etymology

Cognate with Old Japanese 犬 (inu).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ʔiŋ̍]

Noun

犬 (hiragana いん, romaji in)

1. dog

Etymology

Cognate with Old Japanese 犬 (inu).

Kanji

犬 (hiragana いん, romaji in)

Noun

犬 (hiragana いん, romaji in)

1. dog

Han character

犬 (khuyển, chó)

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