p8nda
p8nda BETA
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剥

剝
bō / bāo
verb #5,457

Meanings

  1. 1 to strip; to peel off (a layer, coating, or surface)
  2. 2 to expropriate; to deprive (rights, property)
  3. 3 to exploit (labor)

Examples

HSK 6
他被剥夺了十年的政治权利。
Tā bèi bōduó le shí nián de zhèngzhì quánlì.
He was stripped of his political rights for ten years.
HSK 7-9
资本主义剥削工人的劳动。
Zīběnzhǔyì bōxuē gōngrén de láodòng.
Capitalism exploits the labour of its workers.
HSK 7-9
旧墙上的油漆正在剥落。
Jiù qiáng shàng de yóuqī zhèngzài bōluò.
The paint on the old wall is flaking off.

Tips

usage
The bō reading is bookish or institutional. Three flavours: (1) physical surface peel - 剥落, 剥离 (paint/coating flakes off, a layer peels away); (2) social/political stripping - 剥削 (exploit), 剥夺 (deprive of rights); (3) chengyu - 抽丝剥茧 (to unravel layer by layer).
memory
Memory trick: bāo is what your hands do in the kitchen (open vowel, hands open the orange). bō is what the state or a layer of paint does (rounded vowel, formal and abstract). Same character, two registers - the higher you climb on the abstraction ladder, the more it flips to bō.

Components

radical
刂 dāo
knife (right-side form of 刀)
Knife radical on the right - the right-side form of 刀, the indexing radical of 剥. To 剥 is to peel, strip, flay, skin - every sense involves a blade separating outer layer from inner. Same radical anchors 切 cut, 划 stroke, 刷 brush, 剪 scissors, 副 deputy - the wide blade-and-cut family.
phonetic
录 lù
to record (here phonetic)
Left side 录 supplies the sound: lù drifted to bāo with substantial Old Chinese onset shift. 录 originally pictured water dripping from a piece of carved wood - fitting 剥 (peel, strip), where bark or skin is being stripped away. Same phonetic also gives 绿 (green) and 禄 (salary).

Stroke Order

剥 bō