鬥 (dòu) · to fight; to struggle; to contend

Meanings

1 to fight; to struggle; to contend
2 to compete (against)
3 (traditional form, also written 鬬, 鬭) the indexing form for Kangxi radical #191

Characters

鬥

dòu

fight; combat (traditional)

Two combatants face each other. The seed-meaning is hand-to-hand combat, extended to any contest or struggle.

Examples

HSK 7-9

兩隻公雞鬥得難分難解。

Liǎng zhī gōng jī dòu de nán fēn nán jiě.

The two roosters were locked in an even fight.

HSK 7-9

我們不該為小事鬥氣。

Wǒ men bù gāi wèi xiǎoshì dòu qì.

We shouldn't quarrel over trivial things.

Tips

usage

鬥 is the traditional / Kangxi form of 斗 in its 'fight' sense. 斗 in simplified Chinese covers both this verb and the unrelated dipper / measure 斗 (dǒu). Modern simplified text uses 斗争 (struggle), 战斗 (battle), 奋斗 (strive), 斗气 (squabble); traditional script keeps these as 鬥爭, 戰鬥, 奮鬥, 鬥氣.

history

The Kangxi graph shows two armed warriors facing off, two hands gripping each other across a vertical axis. After simplification merged 鬥 into 斗 (originally a dipper/ladle pictograph), the radical itself fell out of active indexing in mainland dictionaries, but it survives as Kangxi #191 in classical lexicography.

Components

pictograph

鬥 dòu

to fight; combat (Kangxi radical 191)

Two warriors facing off, arms raised. The oracle-bone form clearly shows two figures grappling hand-to-hand, weapons or hair flying. The modern shape stylises the bodies into mirror-image side bars, the inner 王-shapes representing torsos and limbs. Kangxi radical 191; indexes a small combat family including 鬪 and 鬬, all simplified to 斗 in modern PRC writing.

Radical

Fight Kangxi #191

An indexing radical for combat and contest. Compounds are mostly archaic: 鬧 (to make a row, simplified 闹), 鬨 (uproar), 鬩 (squabble), 鬪 / 鬬 (variant fight forms). After simplification merged the productive 鬥 family into 斗, the radical's role in mainland dictionaries shrank, but it remains canonical in Kangxi numbering.