核

Translingual

Han character

核 (Kangxi radical 75, 木+6, 10 strokes, cangjie input 木卜女人 (DYVO), four-corner 4098₂, composition ⿰木亥)

Derived characters

• 𫈺

Related characters

• 覈 (Variant form in mainland China)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 524, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14743
• Dae Jaweon: page 912, character 7
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1206, character 4
• Unihan data for U+6838

Chinese

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *ɡuːd, *ɡrɯːɡ) : semantic 木 (“tree”) + phonetic 亥 (OC *ɡɯːʔ) – a kind of tree. Modern meanings are borrowed.

Etymology 1

The definitions related to “to examine” come from the “kernel” sense, i.e. “to go to the core” (Schuessler, 2007).

Generally thought to be of Sino-Tibetan origin. It has been compared to Tibetan རག་ཙེ (rag tse), Karbi rak (Gong, 2002; Schuessler, 2007). However, Hill (2012) rejects the connection to the Tibetan word because most words ending with ཙེ (tse) are loanwords from Chinese words ending with the 子 suffix.

Smith (2011) groups this word with the following terms into a word family meaning “root, germ, generative core”:

• 荄 (OC *kɯː, “grassroot”) and its derivative 根 (OC *kɯːn, “root”),
• 骸 (OC *ɡrɯː, “(human) bones”) (also noted by Schuessler, 2007),
• 孩 (OC *ɡɯː, “child”),
• 亥 (OC *ɡɯːʔ, “sprouting stage”), i.e. "the moon’s first appearance" > "twelfth earthly branch".

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

核

1. seed; pit; stone; kernel; core; nut (Classifier: 粒 c)

   𦧲核 [Cantonese]  ―  loe¹ wat⁶   ―  to spit out seeds

2. (computing) -core

   See also: 核心

   4核  ―  4-hé  ―  quad-core

3. (physics, chemistry, biology) nucleus
4. (physics) nuclear
5. (mathematics, algebra, linear algebra) kernel

Synonyms

• (seed): (Sichuan) 核核兒／核核儿

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

核

1. to examine; to check; to verify
2. rigorous; detailed; reliable

Usage notes

• In mainland China, 覈 (hé) is considered a variant form (異體字／异体字) of 核 that is simplified to 核.

Compounds

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Definitions

核

1. a kind of tree
2. Alternative form of 荄 (gāi)

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

Definitions

核

1. eaves of a house

References

• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A01911
• “核”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

Japanese

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: ぎゃく (gyaku)
• Kan-on: かく (kaku, Jōyō)
• Kun: さね (sane, 核)

Compounds

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) か​く (Atamadaka – )
• (Tokyo) かく​ (Odaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

核(かく) • (kaku) 

1. atomic nucleus
2. (algebra) kernel
3. (astronomy) core, nucleus
4. cell nucleus

Synonyms

• (atomic nucleus): 原(げん)子(し)核(かく) (genshikaku)
• (cell nucleus): 細(さい)胞(ぼう)核(かく) (saibōkaku)

References

Korean

Hanja

核 • (haek, hol) (hangeul 핵, 홀, revised haek, hol, McCune–Reischauer haek, hol, Yale hayk, hol)

1. (atomic) nucleus

Vietnamese

Han character

核: Hán Nôm readings: hạch

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

References

• Nom Foundation