拷 (kǎo): to beat

Meanings

1 to beat
2 to flog
3 to torture (for interrogation)
4 to copy (computing, abbr. for 拷贝)

Characters

拷

kǎo

to beat; to copy

Examples

古代的官员会拷打犯人。

Gǔdài de guānyuán huì kǎodǎ fànrén.

Officials in ancient times would flog prisoners.

把文件拷到U盘里。

Bǎ wénjiàn kǎo dào U pán lǐ.

Copy the files onto the USB drive.

Tips

usage

In modern Chinese, 拷 is commonly used as short for 拷贝 (kǎobèi, to copy), borrowed from English 'copy.' The original meaning of flogging is mainly seen in literary or historical contexts.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form of 手)

Left-side hand radical, three-stroke contracted form of 手. The indexing radical, marking 拷 as a hand-action verb. The hand is the instrument of beating — 拷 is to strike, flog, or torture, and by extension to interrogate under duress (拷问). Same family of physical-force verbs: 打 hit, 拍 slap, 揍 thrash.

phonetic

考 kǎo

test; examine

Right side 考 is a near-perfect phonetic: kǎo → kǎo, identical sound, identical tone. There is also a faint semantic echo — 考 originally meant a long-lived elder and gained the sense 'to examine' (考察, 考试). 拷 keeps that examining edge: interrogation by force. Phonetic family: 烤 to roast, 铐 handcuffs.