猹

猹 (Kangxi radical 94, 犬+9, 12 strokes, cangjie input 大竹木日一 (KHDAM), composition ⿰犭查(G) or ⿰犭査(K))

• Kangxi Dictionary: not present, would follow page 716, character 5
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1356, character 11
• Unihan data for U+7339

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声) : semantic 犭 (“dog”) + phonetic 查.

Coined by Lu Xun in his short story, “My Old Home”. According to him, the sound component, 查 (zhā) was similar to how the countryfolks said the animal's name.

Whilst most modern sources identify the animal as a badger or a badger-like animal, (Yu, 2016) proposes that the animal might actually have been a water deer - the word ultimately coming from 獐 () in some variety of non-urban Shaoxing Wu (likely what would have been spoken by the real-life inspiration for the character 閏土／闰土 (Rùntǔ), who tells young Lu Xun about the animal).

This would have later been corrupted to in Lu Xun's own Urban Shaoxing Wu, and eventually likened to Standard Mandarin 查 (zhā).

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some! Particularly: “Shaoxing Wu: /dzo/, /tsɑ/, or /tsɒ̃/?”

猹

1. A species of unidentified wild animal mentioned in Lu Xun's “My Old Home”, potentially a badger or water deer.

   我那時並不知道這所謂猹的是怎麼一件東西——便是現在也不知道——只是無端地覺得狀如小狗而很兇猛。 [MSC, trad.]
   我那时并不知道这所谓猹的是怎么一件东西——便是现在也不知道——只是无端地觉得状如小狗而很凶猛。 [MSC, simp.]

   From: 1921, Lu Xun, “My Old Home”

   Wǒ nàshí bìng bù zhīdào zhè suǒwèi zhā de shì zěnme yījiàn dōngxī — biàn shì xiànzài yě bù zhīdào — zhǐshì wúduān dì juéde zhuàng rú xiǎogǒu ér hěn xiōngměng.

   Back then I did not know what this so-called zha was—which I still do not know even now—but just thought that it had a shape like a little dog and was somehow ferocious for no reason.

   走路的人口渴了摘一個瓜吃，我們這裡是不算偷的。要管的是獾豬、刺蝟、猹。 [MSC, trad.]
   走路的人口渴了摘一个瓜吃，我们这里是不算偷的。要管的是獾猪、刺猬、猹。 [MSC, simp.]

   From: 1921, Lu Xun, “My Old Home”

   Zǒulù de rén kǒukě le zhāi yīge guā chī, wǒmen zhèlǐ shì bùsuàn tōu de. Yào guǎn de shì huān zhū, cìwèi, zhā.

   We don't count it as stealing here if a passerby happened to be thirsty and picked a melon to eat. What we do have to mind are badgers or pigs, hedgehogs, zha, that sort of thing.

   「猹」字是我據鄉下人所說的聲音，生造出來的，讀如「查」。但我自己也不知道究竟是怎樣的動物，因為這乃是閏土所說，別人不知其詳。現在想起來，也許是獾罷。 [MSC, trad.]
   「猹」字是我据乡下人所说的声音，生造出来的，读如「查」。但我自己也不知道究竟是怎样的动物，因为这乃是闰土所说，别人不知其详。现在想起来，也许是獾罢。 [MSC, simp.]

   From: 1929, Lu Xun, Letter to Shu Xincheng

   “zhā” zì shì wǒ jù xiāngxiàrén suǒ shuō de shēngyīn, shēngzào chūlái de, dú rú “zhā”. Dàn wǒ zìjǐ yě bù zhīdào jiūjìng shì zěnyàng de dòngwù, yīnwèi zhè nǎi shì rùntǔ suǒ shuō, biérén bù zhī qí xiáng. Xiànzài xiǎng qǐlái, yěxǔ shì huān bà.

   The character zha is one I made up ad hoc according to the countrypeople's pronunciation of the word, similar to 查 (zhā). But not even I myself quite understand what kind of an animal this might be, since it was just something that Runtu had referred to; any other person would not have known about it. Now that I think about it though, it might have been a badger.

Earlier dictionary attestations listed the character under the pronunciation zhā - the earliest being the first edition of the Xinhua Dictionary, chief edited by the lexicographer and linguist Wei Jiangong (魏建功).

However, the 1973 Xiandai Hanyu Cidian had changed the character's pronunciation to chá, homophonic to the more common reading of 查 (chá) in Standard Mandarin. The first Pronunciation Lookup Table for Putonghua Words with Alternate Pronunciations (《普通話異讀詞審音表》), published in 1985, has similarly prescribed chá in favour of zhā. Most later sources have adhered to this and given the character's pronunciation as chá since then.