虎

Stroke order

Stroke order

See images of 虎
(radical 141 + 2)

虎 (Kangxi radical 141, 虍+2, 8 strokes, cangjie input 卜心竹弓 (YPHN) or 卜心竹山 (YPHU), four-corner 2121₇, composition ⿸虍儿(JKT) or ⿸虍几(GV))

• 號, 唬, 虢, 虣, 彪
• 虒 and derived characters (e.g. 遞)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1073, character 3
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 32675
• Dae Jaweon: page 1539, character 23
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2819, character 2
• Unihan data for U+864E

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 虎 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• 老虎 (Cantonese)
• 虎 (Classical)
• 老虎 (Gan)
• Lo-fú (Hakka)
• Lâu-hū (Eastern Min)
• Hó͘ (Southern Min)
• 虎 (Wu)

Historical forms of the character 虎
Shang	Western Zhou	Spring and Autumn	Warring States		Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Ancient script	Small seal script

Pictogram (象形) . 虍 represents the tiger's head. The torso has disappeared and the legs and the tail have transformed into 人 in the small seal script and later 儿 in the clerical script.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-la (“tiger”), from Proto-Austroasiatic *kla(ː)ʔ (“tiger”). Cognate with 菟 (OC *daː) in 於菟 (OC *qa daː, “tiger”). Compare Vietnamese khái ("tiger").

Hill (2019) compares it to Tibetan སྟག (stag, “tiger”); however, Zheng Zining deems that comparison "probably spurious".^[1]

虎

1. tiger

   老虎  ―  lǎohǔ  ―  tiger

2. (figurative) brave; fierce
3. (dialectal) to show a stern or fierce look
4. a surname
5. (Northeastern Mandarin, derogatory) overbold; stupid

虎

1. Only used in 馬虎／马虎 (mǎhu).

虎

1. Only used in 虎不拉 (hùbulǎ).

• “Entry #4498”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2024.

(Jōyō kanji)

1. tiger

• Go-on: く (ku)
• Kan-on: こ (ko, Jōyō)
• Kun: とら (tora, 虎, Jōyō)
• Nanori: とら (tora)、たけ (take)

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

トラ

Wikipedia ^ja

From Old Japanese to₁ra,^[1][2] from Proto-Japonic *tora.

Pellard (2013, 92) includes to₁ra among words with o₁ excepted from the /-o-/ to /-u-/ vowel-raising rule and not originating from earlier diphthongs. According to Vovin (2021, 111), West Old Japanese *to₁ra, instead of expected *tura, is "anomalous" and possibly "a case of a sporadic analogical development".

Vovin (2013) asserts that this word is same as a Silla place name 刀良 (/*tora/), which matches the Old Japanese phonographic spelling.

• (Tokyo) とら (Heiban – )^[3][4]
• IPA^(key):

虎(とら) or 虎(トラ) • (tora) 

1. a tiger (The mammal Panthera tigris)

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as トラ.

虎(とら) • (tora) 

1. (World War II, dated) clipping of 突撃雷撃 (totsugeki raigeki, “lightning attack”), used by Japanese soldiers to warn about an imminent attack.

• → English: tora-tora

From Middle Chinese 虎 (MC xuX). Recorded as Middle Korean 호〯 (hwǒ) (Yale: hwo) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

虎

Wikisource

虎 (eumhun 범 호 (beom ho))

1. hanja form^? of 호 (“tiger”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

(Jōyō kanji)

1. tiger

• Kun: とぅら (tura, 虎)

虎(とぅら) (tura) 

1. とぅら: tiger

From Proto-Japonic *tora.

Pellard (2013, 92) includes to₁ra among words with o₁ excepted from the /-o-/ to /-u-/ vowel-raising rule and not originating from earlier diphthongs. According to Vovin (2021, 111), West Old Japanese *to₁ra, instead of expected *tura, is "anomalous" and possibly "a case of a sporadic analogical development".

Vovin (2013) asserts that this word is same as a Silla place name 刀良 (/*tora/), which matches the Old Japanese phonographic spelling.

虎 (to₁ra)

1. tiger
   • c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 2, poem 199a:

     吹響流小角乃音母敵見有虎可吼登諸人之恊流麻低爾

     PUKI₁NASEru KUDA no₂ OTO₂ mo ATA MI₁TARU TO₁RA ka POYURU to₂ MORO₂P1₁TO₂ NO₂ OBI₁YUru madeni

     I blow with the tube to sing, and the tiger howls at the enemy, to where everyone got scared.

2. year of the Tiger
   • Shōsōin document, text here

     [...] 次刀良〈年廿五二目盲、癈疾〉[...] 次刀良売〈年十二小女〉

     TUGI₁ to₁ra (TO₂SI PA NIPU-GO₁-NI ME₂ NO₂ MI₁YAWU, POZITI) TUGI₁ to₁ra-me₂ (TO₂SI PA ZIYUNI WOME₁)

     next, tora (Year 252; blind with chronical disease) next, tora-me, (Year 12; young woman).

This term is attested in the Man'yōshū only logographically, as 虎.

In the Shōsōin documents, the latter sense is attested phonographically, as a personal name variously called to₁ra and to₁ra-me₂. See also the etymology for further attestations.

• Japanese: 虎 (tora)

虎: Hán Nôm readings: hổ

1. tiger