苦

Translingual

Stroke order

Mainland China and Japan

Han character

苦 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+6 in traditional Chinese, 艸+5 in mainland China and Japanese, 9 strokes in traditional Chinese, 8 strokes in mainland China and Japanese, cangjie input 廿十口 (TJR), four-corner 4460₄, composition ⿱艹古)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1023, character 16
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 30797
• Dae Jaweon: page 1482, character 13
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3186, character 2
• Unihan data for U+82E6

• Unihan data for U+2F996

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 苦
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *kʰaːʔ, *kʰaːs) : semantic 艸 (“grass”) + phonetic 古 (OC *kaːʔ) – bitter (as in bitter plants).

Etymology 1

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *b-ka (“bitter; salty”); compare Tibetan ཁ (kha, “bitter”), Tangut 𗎖 (*khie¹, “bitter”) (STEDT; Jacques, 2014). Within Chinese, cognate with 肝 (OC *kaːn, “liver”).

Pronunciation

Definitions

苦

1. bitter

   苦瓜  ―  kǔguā  ―  bittermelon

2. Alternative name for 荼 (tú, “bitter plant”).
3. difficult; painful; hard
4. hardship; suffering

   辛苦  ―  xīnkǔ  ―  laborious; hard; miserable

5. (regional) excessive
6. (transitive) to cause someone suffering; to give someone a hard time
7. to suffer from; to be handicapped by

   • 魏武曰：「人苦無足，既得隴右，復欲得蜀！」 [Literary Chinese, trad.]
     魏武曰：「人苦无足，既得陇右，复欲得蜀！」 [Literary Chinese, simp.]

     From: 648 CE, Fang Xuanling (lead editor), Book of Jin

     Wèi Wǔ yuē: “Rén kǔ wúzú, jì dé Lǒngyòu, fù yù dé Shǔ!”

     (Emperor) Wu of Wei said: "Men suffer from insatiability, already having Longyou yet still wanting to get Shu!"

8. (obsolete or Eastern Min) to worry about; to be concerned about
9. strenuously; painstakingly

   苦笑  ―  kǔxiào  ―  to force a smile

Synonyms

• (difficult): 難過／难过 (nánguò)
• (excessive):

• (to suffer from): 苦於／苦于 (kǔyú)

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "bitter"): 甘 (gān), 甜 (tián)

Descendants

Compounds

See also

Basic tastes in Chinese · 味道 (layout · text)
甜 (tián)	酸 (suān)	鹹／咸 (xián)	苦	辣 (là)	鮮味／鲜味 (xiānwèi)

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Definitions

苦

1. Alternative form of 盬 (gǔ)

Further reading

• “Entry #5470”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2023.
• “苦”, 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

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. bitter taste
2. pain, anguish, suffering, discomfort, hardship, worry
3. (Buddhism) dukkha, suffering

Readings

• Go-on: く (ku, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: こ (ko)
• Kun: くるしい (kurushii, 苦しい, Jōyō); くるしむ (kurushimu, 苦しむ, Jōyō); くるしめる (kurushimeru, 苦しめる, Jōyō); くるしみ (kurushimi, 苦しみ); くるしむめる (kurushimumeru, 苦しむめる); にがい (nigai, 苦い, Jōyō); にがむ (nigamu, 苦む); にがみ (nigami, 苦み); にがめる (nigameru, 苦める); にがる (nigaru, 苦る, Jōyō); はなはだ (hanahada, 苦だ)

Compounds

Etymology

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

苦

Wikipedia ^ja

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Dukkha

Wikipedia

From Middle Chinese 苦 (khu^X, “suffering”).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

苦(く) • (ku) 

1. suffering
2. (Buddhism) dukkha

References

Korean

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Middle Korean readings, if any”)

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

苦

Wikisource

苦 (eumhun 괴로울 고 (goeroul go))

1. Hanja form^? of 고 (“suffering, pain”).

Compounds

• 고민 (苦悶, gomin, “worry”)

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

• 𦹵
• 𦹯

Han character

苦: Hán Việt readings: khổ
苦: Nôm readings: cỏ, khó, khủ, khổ, cô

References

• Lê Sơn Thanh, "Nom-Viet.dat", WinVNKey (details)