诂

詁
gǔ
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to gloss; to explain ancient words
  2. 2 exegesis

Examples

HSK 6
Zhè bù shū duì gǔ zì jìnxíng le xiángxì de gǔjiě.
This book provides detailed glosses on ancient characters.
HSK 7-9
Tā zhuānmén cóngshì xùngǔ yánjiū.
He specializes in classical exegesis.

Tips

register
Almost only seen in the compound 训诂 - the traditional Chinese philological discipline of explaining the meaning of ancient words.
memory
Speech radical 讠 plus 古 (ancient) - speaking about the ancient: explaining old words.

Components

radical
讠 yán
speech (radical form of 言)
Left-side speech radical, the simplified two-stroke form of 言 (a mouth uttering words). The indexing radical: 诂 means to gloss the meaning of old words, the classical art of interpreting archaic vocabulary. Same speech-family: 说 to speak, 词 word, 译 to translate, 注 to annotate.
phonetic
古 gǔ
ancient; old
Right side 古 supplies the sound exactly: gǔ to gǔ. 古 is 十 (ten) + 口 (mouth) - 'what ten generations of mouths have passed down,' the meaning 'ancient.' The phonetic carries strong semantic weight: 诂 is the speech-work of unpacking ancient words.

Stroke Order

诂 gǔ